Package: task-desktop Version: 3.48 Severity: normal anacron was added to the desktop-task a long time ago. The changelog doesn't mention why it was added, but I assume it was to support systems which are not running 24/7 and to ensure that cron jobs have a chance to run.
Nowadays, we have systemd .timer units, which handle this issue much nicer. I checked a default desktop installation, and all important cron jobs have a corresponding .timer unit. It thus seems safe to drop anacron from task-desktop. -- System Information: Debian Release: buster/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (200, 'experimental') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Foreign Architectures: i386 Kernel: Linux 4.18.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system) LSM: AppArmor: enabled Versions of packages task-desktop depends on: ii desktop-base 9.0.7 ii tasksel 3.48 ii xorg 1:7.7+19 ii xserver-xorg-input-all 1:7.7+19 ii xserver-xorg-video-all 1:7.7+19 Versions of packages task-desktop recommends: ii alsa-utils 1.1.7-1 pn anacron <none> ii avahi-daemon 0.7-4+b1 ii eject 2.1.5+deb1+cvs20081104-13.2 ii firefox 63.0.3-1 ii iw 4.14-1 ii libnss-mdns 0.14.1-1 ii libu2f-udev 1.1.6-1 ii sudo 1.8.26-2 pn task-gnome-desktop | task-xfce-desktop | task- <none> ii xdg-utils 1.1.3-1 task-desktop suggests no packages. -- no debconf information