[Trisquel-devel] Ubuntu-specific packages to remove from repos

[roeplay at lavabit.com]

> On 01/04/2011 02:14 PM, roeplay at lavabit.com wrote:
>> I was as careful as possible to make sure I only included superfluous
>> packages that have no relevance to Trisquel.
>>
>> My "method" was simply to search for "ubuntu", "kubuntu", "xubuntu",
>> "edubuntu", "lubuntu", "mythbuntu" and "ubuntu studio" in Synaptic and
>> find the packages that are Ubuntu-specific.
>
> Simply searching for the word "ubuntu" in Synaptic is far too
> indiscriminate a method to accomplish your goal of removing
> "superfluous" packages. What is the criteria exactly to decide what a
> superfluous package is? Defining such criteria should be (one of) the
> first step(s). I use several of the packages you listed, so they
> certainly aren't superfluous to me and to others who might use them. The
> same goes for metapackages, which can be rather useful and convenient.
> For instance, in a few clicks, users can effectively turn Trisquel into
> Ubuntu Studio, or change from GNOME to KDE, etc. To me, those
> capabilities/conveniences rank high on the practical considerations of
> choosing a fully free distro like Trisquel—it can do pretty much
> everything Ubuntu does without compromising my software freedom. So with
> that in mind, the process of determining what is or isn't a superfluous
> package should be carefully thought out.
>
> I'd imagine that many of the packages on Trisquel's repos will say
> "ubuntu" in the name, considering that 1) this is an Ubuntu deriv, and
> 2) it might not be the most convenient thing to do to rename every
> upstream package (especially unchanged ones). Wouldn't that create even
> more work by having to update the dependency lists of related packages
> in order to reflect the name changes?
>
> --
> Luis A. Morán Morales
> https://identi.ca/lamm
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>

I concede on the potential usefulness of the Ubuntu Studio packages you
mentioned, but most of the ones I listed are not relevant to Trisquel
(Ubuntu splash screens, documentation, artwork, etc).