Aptitude included in Maverick by default

[Aurélien Naldi]

On Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 4:35 AM, Shane Fagan
<shanepatrickfagan at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 2010-06-12 at 08:40 +1000, Chris Jones wrote:
>> I was discussing this issue with some other members on #ubuntu+1 irc
>> just yesterday. Should aptitude be included in Maverick by default?
>>
>> I can't see any valid reason of why it should be. We already have
>> apt-get, dpkg and gdebi. And between the 3 of those, all bases are
>> already covered. So I believe one has to raise the question.
>> I'm not aware of how much space aptitude actually consumes, but the
>> space could be better used for something more useful and/or important.
>
> Its actually very very good and id be lost without it at times. Have you
> ever broken something like X and had to go find the package? Id say you
> havent because then you would know that aptitude is awesome :D
>

Hi,

according to the blog entry, aptitude will be in main and included by
default for the server version only:

http://ubuntuedge.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/greetings-goodbyes-entrance-hell/


Of course I feel sad about it, I have been using aptitude a lot ever
since I convinced myself that I should try it instead of the good old
dselect years ago, before the first ubuntu version :)

Aptitute is a great tool, but let's face it, it is a poweruser tool
and it doesn't make that much sense on a default desktop install. Most
(all??) of its features are also available in synaptic (which is also
a poweruser tool). Of course, synaptic is not well suited to fix a
broken Xorg, but wouldn't it be so much better to avoid putting a
"normal user" in front of a broken Xorg?

Debian and Ubuntu have great package management tool, it is critical
to keep working on these tools and to make them easier to user, more
powerful and easy to discover/install, but it doesn't have to mean put
them all on every default installation!
If synaptic is still part of the default install, a power-user tool
for package management is already available. But I'm not even sure it
really is a requirement, it could also move to the "featured
application" section or something similar (it should at least be easy
to find if it is not installed by default)

The default desktop install is not about putting all the greatest
tools for everyone, it is about providing the best possible user
experience for most user in a very small amount of space. I guess many
people have a set of pet applications that they add right after every
install (I do). But I do love the single-CD install and I think it is
worth adding aptitude to my list of additional applications to keep
it, even if most of the time I use USB keys these days.

A DVD with much more stuff is already available AFAIK and I guess that
for people used to rely on the power of aptitude, it will still be an
apt-get away :)


Best regards.

-- 
Aurélien Naldi