What is the difference between Recommended and Suggested packages (Ubuntu)

Solution 1:

See Debian's FAQ about this. Ubuntu is based on Debian, so it should be the same:

• Package A recommends Package B, if the package maintainer judges that most users would not want A without also having the functionality provided by B.
• Package A suggests Package B if B contains files that are related to (and usually enhance) the functionality of A.

Solution 2:

You can avoid recommended packages from being included in an install in Synaptic via Settings, Preferences, General tab: Untick "Consider recommended packages as dependencies".

With apt-get, you can include the switch "--no-install-recommends".

Dependencies must be present to run the package. I can't tell you what specifically qualifies a package as a recommended one other than what the adjective suggests.

A CLI method of displaying dependencies and suggests is: apt-cache show Example: apt-cache show gimp