On Mon, 14 Oct 2024 at 16:33:40 +0200, Michael Biebl wrote:
> The name of the network-manager-gnome package is indeed a bit misleading
> nowadays.
> Thus for some time I contemplated splitting up the package (similar to how
> Fedora has done) into network-manager-applet and nm-connection-editor. The
> former would contain the nm-applet binary, the latter nm-connection-editor.
>
> network-manager-gnome would become a transitional metapackage depending on
> both.
>
> Desktop environments which already provide an applet/tray could then skip
> installing network-manager-applet and opt into installing
> nm-connection-editor only (for its advanced functionality).
In trixie's metapackages, we now have:
Package: gnome-core # a smallish GNOME system
Recommends: network-manager [linux-any]
Package: gnome # a fully-featured GNOME system
Depends: network-manager [linux-any]
Suggests: network-manager-gnome [linux-any]
and I think all of that is reasonable.
If you split network-manager-gnome as discussed, then we would certainly
replace network-manager-gnome with nm-connection-editor. We could also
consider promoting nm-connection-editor from Suggests back to Recommends
in the "big" gnome metapackage, although I'm unsure whether we should
or not (my personal inclination would be not).
At the moment, network-manager-gnome is also a Recommends for
gnome-control-center, but perhaps that's a bug? Or perhaps g-c-c uses some
part of n-m-g internally?
task-gnome-flashback-desktop does pull in network-manager-gnome as a
Depends, but that seems right for GNOME Flashback, which is a continuation
of GNOME 2 and doesn't use GNOME Shell (that's the point).
Various non-GNOME desktops do pull in network-manager-gnome, and I'm not
sure which half of it they want: Budgie, Cinnamon, LXDE, LXQt and MATE
pull it in as a Recommends or Depends in their metapackages, XFCE pulls it
in via task-xfce-desktop, and the design-desktop and parl-desktop
metapackages (both of which are XFCE variants) have it as Depends. Those
desktops' maintainers might have an opinion on whether this split would
be helpful.
smcv
