Need a little help figuring out what I'm doing wrong here. I've tried to use the graphical package manager to remove

Name: fortune-mod
Version: 1.99.1-5mdk
Size: 5074 KB

Just a little unimportant program. When I hit the checkbox, I get the following dependencies information.

Because of their dependencies, the following package(s) also need to be
removed:

gnome2-2.6.2-1mdk, gnome-control-center-2.6.1-8mdk,
gnome-panel-2.6.2-8mdk, icewm-1.2.16-2mdk, icewm-light-1.2.16-2mdk,
nautilus-2.6.3-10mdk, xfce-4.0.6-1mdk, xlockmore-5.11-2mdk,
xscreensaver-4.18-2.1.101mdk

Why does the package manager think it's necessary to remove Gnome (and the rest)?

I actually did something like this shortly after I installed Mandrake. I removed an inconsequential program via the graphical utility and didn't pay attention. It took Gnome with it. In my noob eyes, it seems like the dependencies are working backwards. Is this a setup issue, or just a lack of understanding on my part?

I'd like to learn what's happening so I can get around to cleaning off some things I'll never use, such as the fortune thing, in order to have more disk space and delay the inevitable repartitioning.

It's not a lack of understanding on your part! I've never heard of this before. The best suggestion I can come up with is, in Control Centre, click Help, Submit Bug Report.

You don't say which version you are running. If however you have installed an RPM for a higher version than the one you have strange things can happen with dependencies.

Sorry about that. Just updated my CP to reflect my version of 10.1 Official. I will allow some time for response and if no one has any other opinions, I'll make a bug report as suggested. Thanks.

*edit*
Just re-read your response, and maybe this will help.

I originally installed 10.0 Community when it was the latest release. Being too impatient at the time, I didn't do anything with it very often. Not knowing any better, I allowed Norton on Windows to "fix" the MBR, so I lost LILO and just ignored it. When I decided to really give it a go, I installed 10.1 Official, and it seems to have installed over the top of 10.0C because the old kernel is still a LILO option, and the old kernel-source is still installed.

Would that cause the conditions to create this problem?

The "fortune-mod" response you got is absolutely correct.

It's an integral part of gnome, even if you don't use the fortune messages.

Removing it breaks some scripts.

It's NOT a bug.