If you do not plan to build Debian packages, you don't need this package.
The "make" package provides GNU Make. "build-essential" is for those who
build .deb packages. The description of "build-essential" starts with:
- [Trisquel-users] Could not apply the stored configu... pch0
- Re: [Trisquel-users] Could not apply the store... Adonay Felipe Nogueira
- [Trisquel-users] Re : Could not apply the ... lcerf
- Re: [Trisquel-users] Could not apply the store... albertoefg