bluesdog wrote:....note in it's description about
xscreensaver-gl package being
recommended
As I see it, the problem with xscreensaver-gl being "recommended" is that, as a user, I was never given a choice to install those OpenGL screensavers in the first place.
In fact, as I described in My Debian Adventure, the KDE installer never asked me to choose ANY packages -- it only asked me if I wanted to use a network mirror or not. If I said "Yes," it automatically installed over 700 packages. If I said "No," it automatically installed over 600 packages, So when I installed Debian, the installer went ahead and downloaded over 700 packages and installed them, all without giving me any choice whatsoever as to what it was going to install. And, as I described, even when I tried RE-installing Debian from the Debian KDE CD #1 4 different times, using both the text-based and GUI installer, it
still never gave me the option to choose which packages I wanted to install.
If I had chosen to install a package of OpenGL screensavers, then I can see how I would have to take the responsibility to accept or reject whatever additional packages were recommended to make those screensavers work. But since I was never given the choice to install those OpenGL screensavers, I was never informed that xscreensaver-gl was recommended to make them work, so I had no way of knowing why they weren't working.
I see this as a problem that could turn a lot of people off, since it appears that the installer causes the problem to begin with, and it takes a long thread like this one to figure out how to solve it. A long thread that a lot of people won't be able or willing to take the time to find.
I may be wrong, but it seems clear to me that if the Debian KDE CD #1 installer is going to install all of those hundreds of packages (including over 70 OpenGL screensavers) without giving me any say in the matter, then the installer should also install whatever additional package are required in order to make those hundreds of installed packages work, including the xscreensaver-gl package that seems to be required in order to make the OpenGL screensavers work.