[Bug 455153] Re: depend on an editor instead of hard-wiring vim

[Daniel Richard G.]

While I agree with the idea of allowing some flexibility in -meta
package choices, vim isn't a good example on which to stake a case.
Rolf, what you really want to do is install the editor of your choice,
and then modify the /usr/bin/editor alternative to point to it; that,
more than anything else, makes it the system's "official" editor. vim is
defensible as a requirement given that it has a minimal footprint, and
that vi has long been the one editor you can count on being installed on
whatever Unix/Linux system you encounter. (I prefer nano myself, but
I've no real reason to begrudge the presence of vi on my system.)

Instead of vim, I would point to gdm as a motivation---see bug 552858.
gdm is currently a problem in the xubuntu-desktop package because it
depends on significant chunks of GNOME (when nothing else in the
metapackage does), so there is a large practical benefit to allowing
alternatives there.

(Of course, the real fix would be for xubuntu-desktop to switch to a
different display manager, and revert to requiring it. But there's
currently no clear idea on how this will happen.)

-- 
depend on an editor instead of hard-wiring vim
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/455153
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Status in “ubuntu-meta” package in Ubuntu: New
Status in “xubuntu-meta” package in Ubuntu: New

Bug description:
xubuntu-desktop should should not require vim, but be satisfied with any other editor as well.