Feisty minus 24 hours: How to ruin a perfectly good application

This drives me absolutely insane.

The following NEW packages will be installed:
dbus gconf2 gconf2-common gnome-keyring gnome-mime-data libart-2.0-2 libavahi-client3 libavahi-common-data libavahi-common3 libavahi-glib1 libbonobo2-0 libbonobo2-common libbonoboui2-0 libbonoboui2-common libgconf2-4 libgnome-keyring0 libgnome2-0 libgnome2-common libgnomecanvas2-0 libgnomecanvas2-common libgnomeui-0 libgnomeui-common libgnomevfs2-0 libgnomevfs2-common libgnomevfs2-extra libhal-storage1 libhal1 libidl0 liborbit2 mirage python-gconf python-gnome2 python-gnomecanvas python-pyorbit

Those are the dependencies for Mirage. For weeks now I’ve been scratching my head, wondering why a PyGTK application that touts itself as “a fast and simple GTK+ image viewer” that “is ideal for users who wish to keep their computers lean while still having a clean image viewer” needs so much Gnome baggage. The entire deb should only take up about 80Kb. I’ve installed the Arch package, and it’s only a smidgin of space. Why so much ballast in Ubuntu?

Well, I finally sorted it out. Apparently there are some optional Gnome add-ons that allow it to follow the Gnome theme in use, and the Ubuntu package in the repository includes those.

So a fantastic little application that was meant to run light and clean gets installed with a third of the Gnome substructure in place. That’s just asinine. And what Gnome fan is going to grab this application as their image viewer of choice when they get gThumb and FSpot and GQview and EOG and the Gimp installed as part of a basic Ubuntu setup? 👿

Fight the power! Free Mirage! Or until it’s freed, download it from GetDeb.net!