Policy currently doesn't directly document the default choice of the
first-listed alternative of a set of dependencies, which came up in
the discussion of Bug #587279.  I believe Policy should state that,
if none of the alternative dependencies are currently installed, the
first listed alternative should be considered the default package to
install to resolve the dependency.

We probably have to be careful how we word this to provide wiggle room
for package managers who may prefer to install the dependency that
requires the fewest additional packages be installed (a heuristic that
will often do the right thing when the alternatives are for different
desktop environments, for instance).

Well, this is close but, in the case we are discussing, a virtual package is not
involved (else a Provides would suffice, and the non-free package would better
be omitted).

Cheers,

* Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> [100727 00:18]:

I do not think it makes sense to tell the package manager what to do,
especially as one would have to list too many exceptions anyway
(like two packages get installed that have different package at the
first position in an otherwise equal list of or'ed list).

How about rather stating that the maintainer should order the list so
that the first choice so that a user is commonly best advised to chose
the earlier over later choices? (With some extra bla about buildd
behaviour).

	Bernhard R. Link