gnome-core is core stuff, and fam is pretty much a hard-dependency for a working GNOME desktop.
I disagree. fam is a nicety, but I don't think any core functionality requires it, and I think it'd be wrong to label it a hard-dependency.
I don't run fam myself, since I'm adverse to running portmap. I haven't
yet figured out if it's possible to make portmap listen only on the
loopback interface but by default the portmap package listens on all interfaces.
This isn't something a typical desktop user wants, and is the sort of
security attitude that I frequently criticise Microsoft and Red Hat for.
One thing I love about Debian is that there are no dubious dependencies
and it's easy to configure a system that is only listening on the specific ports that are being used. I'd be annoyed if the day came when I felt I had to run a firewall on a Debian system. Can't we err on the side of security, here?
-- Jon
