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The Ubuntu Software Center does a fantastic job of inviting new users to explore and try out the software in Ubuntu's repositories. I don't have much experience with it but recently decided to give it a go. I searched for a topic of my interest and installed two applications that sounded promising.

Both were so terrible that I actively want them removed from the Ubuntu Software Center. One was dysfunctional enough that I'd be happy to see it removed from Ubuntu's repositories completely.

What is the proper forum for making such a suggestion? Is there any precedent for this kind of curation?

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    I'd just file a bug against the package and call it a day. If it gets enough bug-heat it gets fixed or removed. – RobotHumans Apr 6 '13 at 22:43
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File a bug against it.:

The bug must have the following elements:

  • which release to remove it from (e.g., hardy)
  • whether to remove both the source package and all binary packages
  • a rationale for why they should be removed

  • confirmation that the binary packages have no rdepends (no other package depends on them)

    • There is checkrdepends in ubuntu-archive-tools, but it needs a mirror to work with.
    • There is reverse-depends and reverse-build-depends in ubuntu-dev-tools, but they only check the architecture you are running on, not all of them.

If you are not an Ubuntu developer use the following process. If you are then subscribe the "ubuntu-archive" team to the bugs. If you need help deciding whether a package ought to be removed, please discuss on the ubuntu-devel mailing list rather than asking the archive administrators.

Refer to https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ for the reason of the removal of a specific package.

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    The bug also needs to describe a valid technical reason for removing the software. Simply saying "I think this is horrible software" or "this sucks" or "I can't use this crap," are not valid. Also, software-center has support for posting ratings and reviews of applications. If you think the software is unusable, giving it an appropriate rating is probably helpful to others. – dobey Apr 7 '13 at 13:11
  • Good points @dobey – Oli♦ Apr 7 '13 at 13:39

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