Strange upgrade behaviour

[Fòram na Gàidhlig]

> As a first step, I think we should focus on *why* language support
> packages may be unsolicitedly uninstalled. We need to figure out under
> which circumstances it can happen, and submit a bug report which
> includes a reproducible use case. We don't have such a bug report yet,
> have we?

Now this is a tricky one. What I did was use the automatic update
function from the Software Center that Ubuntu triggers itself once a
day. Of course I have no idea now which version it was and I dont even
remember the day it happened. I also can't cause a package to be missing
on the update server if that was indeed the core issue.



>>>> The explanation is that that's how the language pack system is
>>>> designed currently. Either you have English - all English -
>>>> installed or not. But some users are (for to me unknown reasons)
>>>> very picky about installing only what they need.
>>
>> I can get that - I was kind of bemused that I had to install all
>> Englishes, because my language doesn't have the coverage yet to be
>> included in the installer. One English would have done the job just as
>> nicely - I only needed it so I could pick my own language later, and
>> after the switch, to fill the gaps in incomplete translations, all I
>> really need is the basic "en" that's used as a basis for translation.
> 
> Was there anything you couldn't do with your computer because you
> installed multiple English variants? I suppose not.

Well, one of the arguments against making sure all language packs are
upgraded was that English speakers could get annoyed because there's so
many English language packs.



> Personally I don't see the problem here. When you use a Linux distro -
> any distro - you install a lot of things you don't need, but which at
> the same time don't hurt.

Neither do I really, but it seems that English speaker complaining about
this make a fix for all other languages "controversial"


>> As explained above, I think the design for English is seriously broken,
>> and it's not really nice for English-speakers either - in the initial
>> install, they too get forced to install all Englishes, even if the
>> updater then drops this later.
> 
> You mix two things here. Yes, there is only one set of language support
> packages per language, and some of the sets (English, Spanish,
> Portugese...) include translations and other stuff for more than one
> variant. Not a problem IMO. Then we think that language support packages
> are silently uninstalled sometimes. As already said above, I suggest
> that we focus on the latter.

Agreed. I just wanted to make sure that we aren't missing any design
issues here that might impact on the solution of our problem.