Software Center does not warn a user when something important is marked for removal
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
software-center (Ubuntu) |
New
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Undecided
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Unassigned |
Bug Description
Binary package hint: software-center
Have you ever started to remove an app, glanced through the to-be-removed list, and... What is gnome-panel doing in there‽
It's happened to me multiple times. Fortunately, I always take time to double-check what's going to be removed and hit cancel if I see something strange. It also helps that I know what shouldn't be in that list.
But what if you're like a friend of mine, who I'll call Harley. Harley is not a power user. He spends most of his time browsing the web and using OpenOffice -- Have I discovered the fabled Average User‽
So when one morning he went to remove Evolution, he didn't notice what else was being removed being removed: indicator-me, gnome-session, gnome-applets, gnome-panel, ubuntuone-
So he got the machine to me, and I reinstalled ubuntu-desktop. Harley computed happily ever after... I hope.
I realize that there are underlying problems causing this package management meltdown, and if anyone can help me get to the bottom of that, I'd greatly appreciate it.
But I think there's something simple we can do to protect the Average User from accidentally removing something important.
My suggestion: when a package on a list of key software (gnome-session, nautilus, etc.) is marked to be removed, the user should be warned that he may be about to remove something important. Obviously, this will be ineffective if the user sees this warning any time he removes _anything_, so the list should be quite minimal.
Note: Bug #561018 is similar, but it concerns packages with "essential" priority. I'm worried about important "optional" packages.
I'm pretty sure there is a warning that informs you of additional packages being removed when removing an application on Maverick. Are you on Maverick or Lucid?