gnome uses it to do automatic network discovery. It shouldnt be removed because it has become a basic library and yes kde 3.4 will have the exact same feature using the apple library which hasnt been relicensed to bsd from the original free but gpl incompatible apple license. if you consider that bloat then you need to move on the something like xfce or fluxbox. stopping progress because you are freaking about controlling each and every library installed in your system isnt going to help
I don't have anything against howl-libs package being installed (but I wouldn't mind removing it). I just want to remove howl package that I have no use of. Ideally, glue libraries/packages, such as gnome-vfs2, should detect on runtime what is available, rahter than requiring you to install ton's of garbage on your system just because somebody, someplace, in some distant undefined future might need it. It is a sad practice in Linux distributions to introduce "features" through the back door, behind the back, when you are not looking. Reminds me of another operating system, let call it Windows.
There's a nice feature of Debian packaging system that would come handy here, the "recommends" list. gnome-vfs2 shouldn't require howl-libs, but it should recommend it (well, it can't do that, since there's no such thing as "recommends" section in RPM packaging system). The user can than decide if he needs or doesn't need a particular feature.
-- Aleksandar Milivojevic <amilivojevic@xxxxxx> Pollard Banknote Limited Systems Administrator 1499 Buffalo Place Tel: (204) 474-2323 ext 276 Winnipeg, MB R3T 1L7
