Bonum Certa Men Certa

Latest Debian GNU/Linux Installs Gnote When Mono is Removed

Debian



Summary: Interesting decision from Debian developers/packagers, who help those that reject and eject Mono

It has been a while since we last wrote about Mono, the Microsoft tyrant inside GNU/Linux. Tomboy continues to be a leading Mono promotion tool even though a superior substitute (faster and smaller) written in C++ exists and is freely available without the Microsoft patent risk.



One contributor of ours said: "when I uninstalled 'mono-runtime' it removed a bunch of mono stuff. Then it continued on to install gnote, something I had not requested.

"I'm wondering what went wrong with the Debian team that they allowed Mono in there at all."

"Debian should be made clean again," he added. "It used to be the distro that was most about Freedom. I guess that crown has now moved to Trisquel and Gnewsense instead.

"Below is a capture from the terminal of a freshly installed Debian 7.1 (Wheezy) system. I used the debian-7.0.0-i386-netinst.iso image from their web site. I'll keep a snapshot of that VM around for a day so if more is needed."

Here is the terminal output:




root@debian ~# lsb_release -rd Description: Debian GNU/Linux 7.1 (wheezy) Release: 7.1 root@debian:~# dpkg -l mono* Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Architecture Description +++-==============-============-============-================================= un mono-1.0-runti (no description available) un mono-2.0-runti (no description available) ii mono-4.0-gac 2.10.8.1-8 all Mono GAC tool (for CLI 4.0) un mono-common (no description available) ii mono-gac 2.10.8.1-8 all Mono GAC tool un mono-jit (no description available) ii mono-runtime 2.10.8.1-8 i386 Mono runtime un monodoc-gtk2.0 (no description available) root@debian:~# dpkg -l gnote Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Architecture Description +++-==============-============-============-================================= un gnote (no description available) root@debian:~# apt-get -y remove mono-runtime Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following extra packages will be installed: gnote libpcrecpp0 The following packages will be REMOVED: gnome libdbus-glib1.0-cil libdbus1.0-cil libgconf2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.6-cil libgtk2.0-cil libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo4.0-cil libmono-corlib4.0-cil libmono-i18n-west4.0-cil libmono-i18n4.0-cil libmono-posix4.0-cil libmono-security4.0-cil libmono-sharpzip4.84-cil libmono-system-configuration4.0-cil libmono-system-core4.0-cil libmono-system-drawing4.0-cil libmono-system-security4.0-cil libmono-system-xml4.0-cil libmono-system4.0-cil mono-4.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime tomboy The following NEW packages will be installed: gnote libpcrecpp0 0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 26 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 3,421 kB of archives. After this operation, 20.8 MB disk space will be freed. Get:1 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ wheezy/main libpcrecpp0 i386 1:8.30-5 [126 kB] Get:2 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ wheezy/main gnote i386 0.8.3-1 [3,295 kB] Fetched 3,421 kB in 6s (561 kB/s)

(Reading database ... 143081 files and directories currently installed.) Removing gnome ... Removing tomboy ... Removing libdbus-glib1.0-cil ... Removing libdbus-glib1.0-cil from Mono Removing libdbus1.0-cil ... Removing libdbus1.0-cil from Mono Removing libgconf2.0-cil ... Removing libgconf2.0-cil from Mono Removing libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil ... Removing libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil from Mono Removing libgtk2.0-cil ... Removing libgtk2.0-cil from Mono Removing libgmime2.6-cil ... Removing libgmime2.6-cil from Mono Removing libglib2.0-cil ... Removing libglib2.0-cil from Mono Removing libmono-addins0.2-cil ... Removing libmono-addins0.2-cil from Mono Removing libmono-cairo4.0-cil ... Removing libmono-system-drawing4.0-cil ... Removing libmono-system-core4.0-cil ... Removing libmono-sharpzip4.84-cil ... Removing libmono-posix4.0-cil ... Removing libmono-i18n-west4.0-cil ... Removing libmono-i18n4.0-cil ... Removing libmono-system4.0-cil ... Removing libmono-system-configuration4.0-cil ... Removing libmono-system-security4.0-cil ... Removing libmono-system-xml4.0-cil ... Removing libmono-security4.0-cil ... Removing libmono-corlib4.0-cil ... Removing mono-runtime ... Removing mono-gac ... * Removing packages from mono Removing mono-4.0-gac ... Processing triggers for gconf2 ... Processing triggers for shared-mime-info ... Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme ... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ... Processing triggers for gnome-menus ... Processing triggers for menu ... Processing triggers for man-db ... Selecting previously unselected package libpcrecpp0:i386. (Reading database ... 141636 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking libpcrecpp0:i386 (from .../libpcrecpp0_1%3a8.30-5_i386.deb) ... Selecting previously unselected package gnote. Unpacking gnote (from .../gnote_0.8.3-1_i386.deb) ... Processing triggers for libglib2.0-0:i386 ... Processing triggers for man-db ... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ... Processing triggers for gnome-menus ... Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme ... Setting up libpcrecpp0:i386 (1:8.30-5) ... Setting up gnote (0.8.3-1) ...



"They could have saved all that trouble, space and bandwidth by going with Gnote to begin with," he added. "Even just looking at the volume of dependencies it is superior."

This whole exploration started because as a Debian user myself I just noticed that Mono is included in the desktop by default. Nobody really needs it; this is only taking up a lot of valuable space and raises various types of risk.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft: Work Weekends Too
Microsoft literally working its workers to death
 
September at IBM: Silent Layoffs on Day 1
PIPocalypse at IBM
Last Month IRC Entered Its 39th Year and It's Still Growing (New IRC Networks)
There are 511+ known IRC networks
Links 01/09/2026: Climate, Disinformation, Microsoft Overworking People
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Site Still Offline (Third Day), But Richard Stallman is Active Online
he is busy online despite his site not being accessible so far this week
PIP Layoffs at Microsoft, Even in India
Microsoft is trying to hide the true scale of the layoffs
Layoff Trackers Are a Sham, They're Like US 'Unemployment Data'
Layoff trackers are similarly misleading as they only measure what companies openly admit and register with WARN notices
The Peculiar Case of OSNews, Which Experiments With Slopfarming
It wasn't published in error. It has been there for two months.
Russian Federation is Removing Windows From Computers
Windows is going "out of fashion"
XBox CEO Has No Clue What She is Selling
Some people believe Microsoft will parcel and offload the whole "gaming" unit to some other companies
analognowhere.com and xkcd.com Selling Physical Copies of Webcomics
That's one way to support their work
PIP/GVSA at Microsoft: Mass Layoffs Disguised as Something Else
Microsoft is trying to cheapen the workforce because the numbers don't add up
Microsoft Lunduke Uses Twitter ("X") Because It's Algorithmically Designed to Boost His Worldview/s, He Ignores What "X" Is
Maybe all those people really deserve one another
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 31, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, August 31, 2026
Censorship by Threats
It should be noted that the Web site of Richard Stallman will soon enter its third day of downtime
In Romania, GNU/Linux Reaches 6%, According to Clownflare
Tomorrow we'll see the latest data from statCounter (for September)
Gemini Links 01/09/2026: Denali Park Train Trip, Crafts, and Community-Building in smol.pub
Links for the day
Microsoft Workers Doing 80 Hours a Week After Microsoft Culled Their Colleagues
there are days when they work 17 hours a day (barely any time left to sleep and eat) and work starts at 5AM
IBM Defrauds Shareholders With Fake News (Bribed Press) About "Quantum"
That says a lot about the state of "Tech Giants" and also the utterly shameless state of the media
Record Highs for GNU/Linux, Especially in the United States of America
the "market share" of GNU/Linux is about 9%, still about a third of what Vista 11 stands at
PIPocalypse at IBM
Silent layoffs
Spending Over a Million Bucks on Lawsuits Abroad When There's a Big Mortgage to Pay in America
Priorities, priorities...
Gemini Links 31/08/2026: Announcing ROOPHLOCH 2026, smol.pub Discussion, and LLM Plagiarism Engines Target Geminispace
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's GNU Turns 43 in 4 Weeks, FSF Growing
In a few weeks GNU turns 43
IBM's Cuts Are Worsening Security in GNU/Linux
IBM is still run by the same idiot who proposed taking over Red Hat
Links 31/08/2026: Anthropic Sued Again for Copyright Infringement of Massive Scale, 'Tokenmaxxing' Shows Slop is a Worthless Liability
Links for the day
Links 31/08/2026: "Teslas Are Still Driving Into Oncoming Freight Trains" and "LLM Moats Quickly Evaporating"
Links for the day
Stallman Has Explained Slop is "Marketing Hype Campaign" and Torvalds Agreed. The Difference is the Bribes.
So be like Stallman
Debian Project Discards About 25% of the Votes on LLM Slop, Microsoft Votes in the General Resolution (GR)
"[t]he rules of the vote saw community members asked to rank each of the eight proposals. Just under 600 people voted, but Debian’s election team rejected many for unspecified reasons, leaving almost 450 valid votes to count."
Essentiality of Rest and Killing Oneself for Vicious Companies
Working for Microsoft is foolish
In the UK, Bing (Microsoft) Down to Lowest Level Since January
our tax money being passed to Microsoft via MoUs (back door deals with kickbacks)
SLAPP Censorship - Part 167 Out of 200: The Court of Appeal Might be the Next Step
Today is our last vacation day
German Government Sponsors IBM Because of GNU/Linux
Flatpak is sponsored by, run, and controlled by IBM
Richard Stallman Speaks to Christine Hall of FOSS Force, stallman.org is Down for Over a Day
interview does a good job addressing the hype about LLMs too
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 30, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, August 30, 2026
Gemini Links 31/08/2026: Holidays, Stream of Consciousness, and Posting Online
Links for the day
Anniversaries Next Month
The month should be otherwise quiet and uneventful for us
Coding is Not Obsolete
we drown ourselves in chaff to meet "LOC" objectives while ignoring everything else
Microsoft Layoffs Perpetual But Silent, People Pushed Out Using Pressure or Incentive Schemes
Earlier this month we named some of the programs
Links 30/08/2026: Apple Rant and LLM (Slop) Scrapers Target Gemini Protocol and Gopher
Links for the day
Salaries Are Counted in Money, Not in Participation in the Employer's Scheme
articles greatly exaggerating GAFAM salaries
Walls in Free Software
mind your own business and move on
Even Linux Cannot Cope With Slop
Bots on the Web are truly obnoxious
What a Summer!
Tomorrow is the last day of this month
Links 30/08/2026: Soldiers in Niger Attack Presidential Palace and Airport, Nepali City Struggles to Handle the Many Dead Bodies
Links for the day
Clownflare Sees GNU/Linux Rising to 11% This Past Week
Is it the year of "Linux in China"?
Links 30/08/2026: Russian Strike on a Ukrainian Warehouse and Rhetoric Escalations
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/08/2026: Photography, Paper Books, Linux Kernel and the Debian Projects Permitting Slop Plagiarism
Links for the day
Imagine a World Where Nobody Fights for Software (and Computing) Freedom
The community keeps fighting back, so some of these ambitions are delayed or watered down
FSF Has Grown (More Staff) After a Year of Financial Growth
On October 4 the FSF turns 41
GNU/Linux Has Become More Mainstream in the United Kingdom
It's a long weekend here and we guess some people dabble in GNU/Linux migrations, at least at home
SLAPP Censorship - Part 166 Out of 200: Garrett Wasn't Found Innocent Per Se, the Court Wanted More Evidence of Who Was Behind Particular Accounts Using Tor
It's complicated
Criminals Don't Obey Laws, California Does Not Enhance Online Safety
It has been a while since we last mentioned so-called 'age-verification' laws
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 29, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, August 29, 2026