Bug 432830

Summary:	Programs freeze due to excessive number of fonts installed, even on the minimal install
Product:	[I don't know] kde	Reporter:	Dan Dascalescu <ddascalescu+kde>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Unassigned bugs mailing-list <unassigned-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED DOWNSTREAM
Severity:	normal	CC:	arojas, nate
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Kubuntu
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	Can we, like, NOT, install all this junk?

Description Dan Dascalescu 2021-02-12 07:39:48 UTC

A fresh installation of Kubuntu 20.04, comes with an *astonishing* number of fonts, even though I chose the "minimal" install, without any office suite.

The vast, vast majority of users will never use more than 10% of these fonts. All possible far Eastern locales are included, even though a Thai user won't ever need a Gujarati font, or the other way around. (If they're a graphic designer and they do, they know where to find fonts.)

Due to this, the font selection dialog is almost unusable. It takes so long to load in Pinta for example, that I thought the app had crashed. Even after the popup is displayed, scrolling to any actually useful font is very cumbersome.

Please see the attached screencast.

Localization is nice, but this is way overkill. A given user speaks 2-3 languages at most, not 40.

The installer already asks the user what language they want, but ignore that, and bloats their system with all the possible language fonts.

Removing these fonts is non-trivial, and there are many threads online on the topic:

* https://askubuntu.com/questions/820746/remove-unused-fonts
* https://askubuntu.com/questions/214950/how-can-i-remove-fonts-that-i-never-use-from-libreoffice-and-linux-in-general
* https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=259109
* https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=297573
* https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=279672
* https://superuser.com/questions/248844/how-do-you-remove-fonts-from-ubuntu

Even very carefully-written solutions to this mess (https://askubuntu.com/questions/214950/how-can-i-remove-fonts-that-i-never-use-from-libreoffice-and-linux-in-general/878501#878501) come with the risk of removing useful packages. For example, after I ran `sudo apt remove fonts-smc-meera fonts-smc-rachana fonts-smc-raghumalayalamsans fonts-smc-suruma fonts-smc-uroob fonts-taml fonts-telu fonts-telu-extra fonts-ubuntu fonts-urw-base35 fonts-yrsa-rasa`, I found out that,

> The following packages will be REMOVED:
>  bluez-cups cups cups-filters fonts-mlym fonts-smc fonts-smc-meera fonts-smc-rachana fonts-smc-raghumalayalamsans fonts-smc-suruma fonts-smc-uroob fonts-taml
>  fonts-telu fonts-telu-extra fonts-ubuntu fonts-urw-base35 fonts-yrsa-rasa ghostscript ghostscript-x hplip kubuntu-desktop kubuntu-settings-desktop libgs9
>  libgs9-common libspectre1 okular plymouth-label plymouth-theme-kubuntu-logo printer-driver-foo2zjs printer-driver-hpcups printer-driver-pnm2ppa
  printer-driver-ptouch printer-driver-sag-gdi printer-driver-splix python3-renderpm


💥

Comment 1 Dan Dascalescu 2021-02-12 07:42:11 UTC

Created attachment 135612 [details]
Can we, like, NOT, install all this junk?

Comment 2 Antonio Rojas 2021-02-12 08:15:05 UTC

Please report this to kubuntu

Comment 3 Dan Dascalescu 2021-02-12 22:39:20 UTC

@Antonio: I'm sorry, I'm not a KDE/Kubuntu expert, and I'm not familiar with the fine nuances of where to report what. I've selected "Kubuntu Packages" in the Platform field here in Bugzilla. Is that wrong?

Where exactly would I report this to Kubuntu? https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kubuntu/Bugs/Reporting doesn't help, and https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+search?text=kubuntu doesn't provide any clear component to report in.

Comment 4 Nate Graham 2021-02-19 22:13:42 UTC

Fonts come from distro packages, and distros determine which packages to pre-install. We in KDE-land don't have any control over that. So Antonio is right that you would need to complain to the Kubuntu folks about the assortment of packages which get installed by default.

Comment 5 Dan Dascalescu 2021-02-19 22:16:42 UTC

I did complain, but could use some support from folks with more clout than myself:

1. https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthread.php/77868-How-can-we-reduce-the-crapton-of-fonts-installed-by-default

2. https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/excessive-fonts-installed-by-default/20924

Comment 6 Nate Graham 2021-02-19 22:37:34 UTC

To be totally honest, I left the upstream Ubuntu community a while back due to a perceived lack of responsiveness or receptivity to community concerns. I'm not sure I'd get anywhere faster than you.

The developers of Debian, Arch, openSUSE, and Fedora seem much more receptive and community-oriented overall.

That said... distros gonna distro. :)