On Mon, 29 Dec 2014 18:13:52 -0600, Doug Newgard wrote: > Arch isn't Debian, every binary isn't given it's own package. When I read the OPs mail, I wanted to write the same. Now I just need to ad my +1. I very seldom want split packages, I prefer that Arch Linux very seldom does split packages and usually keep it as done by upstream. We perhaps still remember how many times jackd for Debian was broken, because Debian split the jackd package. The libjack package alone was completely useless, but often contributed a broke link. jackd upstream always was pissed off, when they got tons of requests, just because Debian package maintainers did a bad job. The bad job was enforced by Debian's odd policy. The dependency discussion could become the only reason for me, on day to drop Linux. Fortunately there are still many applications that don't force to install unneeded hard dependencies. Many hard dependencies are completely useless for my needs and at least one hard dependency even damages my hardware. Some packages make gvfs a hard dependency. This does damage my external hard drive. Other packages make it an optional dependencies. Making it optional IMO is the only sane way to satisfy all users. When I can install an empty dummy package as replacement for a dependency, without breaking the main functionality off the app, then such a dependency should become an optional dependency. For good reasons I stopped maintaining my Debian and Ubuntu installs and only maintain my Arch Linux install. Regards, Ralf
