Comment 4 for bug 372385

gnome-desktop is a Debian metapackage to conveniently install a complete working GNOME desktop. It is not installed by default in Ubuntu as ubuntu-desktop is Ubuntu's metapackage to install a complete Ubuntu desktop. Therefore, you can safely remove gnome-desktop. If you have questions or concerns about the package selection in gnome-desktop, please report them to Debian. Some basic information about how to do that can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Debian/Bugs or http://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting