Based on conversation https://ask.fedoraproject.org/t/list-protected-packages/19175.
It's fairly frequent for users to want to "clean up" their system of unneeded packages. The protected-packages mechanism is designed to help people not saw their feet off in doing so. Right now, the basic list is pretty minimal.
A lot of protection is there because fedora-release-identity-workstation adds gnome-shell, and that has a lot of dependencies. But, maybe we don't go far enough.
fedora-release-identity-workstation
gnome-shell
I think it would be reasonable to add NetworkManager (or NetworkManager-wifi to the list, as well as gnome-software. We could tell people that if they want to remove those things, they should do sudo dnf swap fedora-release-identity-workstation fedora-release-identity-basic — in fact, I think rather than /etc/dnf/protected.d/gnome-shell.conf, that list should be /etc/dnf/protected.d/fedora-workstation.conf, and contain things that from a functional perspective it isn't Workstation without.
NetworkManager
NetworkManager-wifi
gnome-software
sudo dnf swap fedora-release-identity-workstation fedora-release-identity-basic
/etc/dnf/protected.d/gnome-shell.conf
/etc/dnf/protected.d/fedora-workstation.conf
That file could have a comment explaining that, and giving the dnf swap command.
dnf swap
It might also be useful to list kernel-modules (because wifi and sound won't work without those), but I know the kernel packages are special in several ways so I'm not sure of the full implications.
kernel-modules
The working group previously decided that gnome-software should be removable. The ticket for that was:
And the minutes for the meeting where those decisions were taken are:
I think the main reasons for the decision were that a) people should be able to customize their systems and b) software has issues, particularly around resource consumption.
I'm surprised that it's possible to remove NetworkManager and agree that it shouldn't be removable. Not sure whether it should be explicitly protected or become a dependency of gnome-shell or gnome-control-center, though.
Metadata Update from @aday: - Issue set to the milestone: Fedora 36 - Issue tagged with: meeting
Metadata Update from @catanzaro: - Issue assigned to catanzaro
Metadata Update from @catanzaro: - Issue untagged with: meeting - Issue tagged with: pending-action
Agreed: we'll protect NetworkManager (and possibly NetworkManager-wifi), but not GNOME Software. Michael to implement after holidays.
https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/fedora-release/pull-request/213
Looks like this was merged, so let's call the issue fixed. Thanks @catanzaro!
Metadata Update from @aday: - Issue close_status updated to: Won't fix - Issue status updated to: Closed (was: Open)
Metadata Update from @tpopela: - Issue status updated to: Open (was: Closed)
Metadata Update from @tpopela: - Issue close_status updated to: Fixed - Issue status updated to: Closed (was: Open)
I must've pressed the wrong button. Thanks for correcting, @tpopela .
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