metapackages

[Eamonn Sullivan]

On 26/09/05, Dennis Kaarsemaker <dennis at kaarsemaker.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> The apt/dpkg system allows for the nice construction of metapackages,
> which in Ubuntu is used at a few places already (linux-*, ubuntu-*
> e.a.), but imho it's used far too little. Metapackages can make
> installing software suites so much easier, we could be able to
> 'eliminate' all mp3 questions by putting ubuntu-multimedia-gnome and
> ubuntu-multimedia-kde packages in multiverse. Installing a LAMP setup
> (very popular among relatively new users) is made simple by an
> ubuntu-lamp package in universe.
>
> I have made a few of these packages (which are definitely not good
> enough to be included, but merely serve as examples) at
> http://seveas.ubuntulinux.nl/ . Is there any reason not to adopt such a
> system?

I think that's a great idea. It would make answering the majority of
questions on the user list much easier (sudo apt-get
ubuntu-multimedia-gnome, for example). Although I see Ubuntu (almostly
certainly rightly) distancing itself more completely away from some
packages, such as w32codecs. Might providing "official" metapackages
have the same legal problems as providing the packages themselves?

-Eamonn