the upgrade process helpfully decided to uninstall about 75 packages [like mozilla
As a side note, if apt-get ever says something like this the right move is to cancel whatever you asked for and try something different (usually installing some other stuff first). I take 'uninstall big lumps of userland' as an indication that its heuristics have come up with the completely wrong answer and you need to manually change the situation a bit so they can try again from a different starting point.
I agree entirely that it's crap that it doesn't work, and am unconvinced that putting another layer on top of apt-get is the right way to fix it either.
As a side note, if apt-get ever says something like this the right move is to cancel whatever you asked for and try something different (usually installing some other stuff first). I take 'uninstall big lumps of userland' as an indication that its heuristics have come up with the completely wrong answer and you need to manually change the situation a bit so they can try again from a different starting point.
I agree entirely that it's crap that it doesn't work, and am unconvinced that putting another layer on top of apt-get is the right way to fix it either.