Individual LibreOffice apps do not include GTK support by default

[Julian Raschke]

This is a packaging quirk that I've encountered in elementaryOS, but I've verified that it also affects the new minimal installation in Ubuntu 18.04.

When I install LibreOffice Calc or Writer from GNOME Software, they do not automatically install the `libreoffice-gnome` package and look completely out of place in the surrounding GTK desktop.

There are two workarounds: I can either install the `libreoffice-gnome` package manually, or I can install the full LibreOffice package, which includes `libreoffice-gnome` in its Recommends. Neither of these options is intuitive for me as a user; I only searched for "Excel" in GNOME Software and installed Calc because it looked familiar.

Proposed fix, without knowing much about package dependencies: Can't the individual LibreOffice apps include `libreoffice-gnome|libreoffice-kde4` in their Recommends as well?

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

That wouldn't work for other desktop environments (not GNOME and not KDE). Some might want libreoffice-gtk2, others might want libreoffice-gtk3. I agree that the default UI is rather poor on the eye. OTOH, this situation happens only when libreoffice is not already installed by default, which it is on most flavours of Ubuntu, unless you select a minimal install.
Not sure what to do about this, to be honest.

[Julian Raschke (jlnr)]

The libreoffice package has libreoffice-gnome|libreoffice-kde4 in its Recommends. Why can't libreoffice-calc do the same? What is the difference from the point of view of a non-GNOME/non-KDE desktop?

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

But the libreoffice metapackage is not usually installed, whereas individual libreoffice apps are.

[Julian Raschke (jlnr)]

Ah, TIL: The "LibreOffice" that appears under Productivity in GNOME Software is the LibreOffice launcher, not the "libreoffice" metapackage. I was getting the two confused.

Is there any specific desktop environment where the libreoffice-gtk3 would be a worse choice than the default look? Is the issue that some environments want to avoid GTK 3 dependencies altogether?