Comment 39 for bug 431091

These libraries don't need community support. They don't even need to be in the default distro. However they DO need to be available in the repositaries so that those who discover they need them (like swiss people trying to do their taxes) can install them in the usual way.

If you try to run an application and it complains about a missing libstdc++5 you should just be able to go to synaptic and search for libstdc++5 and install it that way. That is the way ubuntu users expect things to work. You shouldn't have to go trolling the internet to find the missing library and look for a recipe on some untrusted website telling you how to install it. That is where this is going and it is a step backwards.

To refuse to even put the libraries in the repositaries breaks the ubuntu software package management and installation model. If you force people to go around installing libraries manually to get legacy applications to run - well that is precisely the kind of mess that package management software is supposed to help us avoid.

There is a lot of stuff available through synaptic that isn't community supported. Put a disclaimer on it or whatever. But don't break the package management system in this arbitrary way.