Request for explicit warnings/messages on package transitions b/n releases

[crash]

I guess I am not allowed to mark this as a "wish-list" item, but that is what this is.

From one release to the next, some packages are dropped completely, some are simply renamed, and some are dropped, but replaced with a different package. I would like to request a more explicit way to notify the user of these changes.

For example, in Edgy (or Dapper), there was a package called gXMMS -- a simple applet that allowed xmms control from a Gnome panel. During the next version upgrade, that package simply disappeared. I had to search all over the web until I found that in this updated release, I had to install Playground (+ xmms plugin) for the same functionality. It would have been much nicer if during the upgrade I received a message such as: "gXMMS is obsolete and is going to be uninstalled. However, there is a different application called Playground that can do the same thing. Would you like to install Playground?"

During the upgrade from Feisty to Gutsy, I had to resort to Google (again) to figure out where GAIM went, what is Pidgin, and why is Pidgin messing with my GAIM files. Again, a simple heads up of "GAIM is now known as Pidgin; all of your files and configurations will be kept intact during this transition." would have saved me time and stress.

I'm sure there are other examples, but I hope these illustrate my point well enough.

Thanks in advance =)

[Anthony Noto (angusthefuzz)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Can you try with latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[crash (crash369)]

It was still an issue as of 8.04. I have not yet upgraded to 8.10, however this is not something that would resolve itself. So unless someone worked on this, I'm sure it's still a problem.