xpdf-utils cannot "use the poppler backend". poppler is a different project. It started out years ago as a fork of xpdf. They made the unfortunate decision to use the same exact names for their command-line utilities as are used by xpdf, creating major headaches for all distribution frameworks.
By this time, xpdf and poppler have diverged, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, as pointed out by OP. In addition, their output is different, so programs that parse their output cannot be easily ported from one to the other. I make heavy use of xpdf in my work. It is a major error to take the package name "xpdf-utils" and suddenly make it install programs from a totally different package instead, effectively removing xpdf-util completely from Ubuntu. In my opinion, xpdf-utils should not be removed from Ubuntu. It is a significant component of a classic high-quality supported open source project. Please immediately undo that "change" to xpdf-utils. Regarding the dependency problem in this bug report: one approach is to install the xpdf utilities with different names. E.g., pdftops => xpdf-pdftops, etc. That is the approach currently taken by MacPorts: see http://trac.macports.org/ticket/17540 ** Bug watch added: trac.macports.org/ #17540 http://trac.macports.org/ticket/17540 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/697119 Title: conflict between xpdf and poppler-utils is not necessary -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
