If I attempt to uninstall a metapackage, apt does not actually remove the metapackage's dependencies, only the "wrapper" itself. Even when running apt autoremove, these subpackages are not listed. I find it confusing that autoremove removes dependencies for most normal packages, but not many metapackages. Why is this?
How can I install an alternative desktop on an existing Ubuntu install without installing the restricted extras (or any other non-free or known patent-encumbered packages)?
For example, if I install the xubuntu-desktop package, it installs packages like gstreamer1.0-libav, which would normally have to be installed from the restricted-extras package instead. I could just install the desktop environment itself (xfce4 package), but that would leave off all the normal packages that Xubuntu comes with, including desktop themes, etc.