The user should be able to install or remove any desktop software, freely. This should not be the situation we aim for on GNU/Linux desktops by making Firefox mandatory software. Just enough to start a command prompt or “PowerShell”. And if you don’t, you don’t get any GUI stuff really at all. In Windows, their idea of “topology” in the Server product is you can install the “Desktop Experience” or not install it. It makes Debian more like Windows, where there’s basically no concept of separation and topology, where the user is not free to customize it to his or her own liking and needs, and must have Internet Explorer and Edge. I say bad dependency handling because forcing a user to install Web browsers, much less a specific one, to have a desktop environment, is a layering violation. On Debian’s part, this is just not the best dependency management on most desktop environments, with KDE seemingly the only one where removing Firefox doesn’t mean accepting an even worse browser or damaging the system. KDE’s, however, do not, so you may remove Firefox without worrying that it will demand that you install Chromium or risk damaging other parts of the OS. I was somewhat angry that the dependency sprawl of GNOME’s desktop meta-packages on Debian force the user to have either Firefox or Chromium. Last time I tried using Debian (11) and removing Firefox, I had GNOME. I ’ve done a reverse dependency lookup, and it seems that the only desktop meta-package in Debian 12 that doesn’t “depend” on Firefox -or- Chromium is KDE. Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer.
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