Safe to Remove?

[james147]

dibl, harddisk space is not the only consideration you want to take when removing packages, network bandwidth is also important as those packages need updating as well and the more unneeded packages you have the longer updates will take. Although some packages takes up very little space, it adds up after a while and can actually be a problem when you have a monthly bandwidth cap.

Also, it can tidy up the menu so you can find things you actually use faster (although you can also do this by removing the offending application from the menu rather then the system or just the the search feature ).

That said, it should considered if it is worth removing these apps if you do have plenty of resources to manage them.

[dibl]

I just noticed, you have 6TB of hard drive capacity, in that very nice system. Have you noticed how little space your Linux OS takes and all your installed packages use -- what is it, 5 or 6GB? That's 0.1 percent of your available space for all of kubuntu. The kppp executable is 530K -- I can't even do the math to figure out what percent of your capacity you are sacrificing to kppp -- are you sure you care? If you really do want to spend your time that way, I would say pop open your terminal and check the reverse depends, to see if anything important depends on the package that you are considering removing. For example:

dibl@imerabox:/home/dibl$ sudo apt-cache rdepends kppp
kppp
Reverse Depends:
  kdenetwork
  education-desktop-other

Since I need kdenetwork, it appears I'd be causing a problem if I removed kppp. However, rdepends "counts" recommended packages as dependencies. When I confirm by checking the kdenetwork dependencies, I see this:

dibl@imerabox:/home/dibl$ sudo apt-cache depends kdenetwork
kdenetwork
  Depends: kget
  Depends: kopete
  Depends: krdc
  Depends: krfb
  Recommends: kdenetwork-filesharing
  Recommends: kppp

So, since kppp is only a recommended additional package for kdenetwork, I could remove it and cause no damage.

But again -- for such a trivial saving of disk space that costs $0.09 per GB, or in my case of an SSD, about $1.00 per GB. You'll spend a lot of time trying to save a dime's worth of space, and probably not succeed.

[Xplorer4x4]

If you want to exercise very fine-grained control over what gets installed, you might want to consider a distribution like Arch or Gentoo. That way you can opt-in to the packages you want rather than removing.

Thanks but being new to linux I feel Kubuntu is the right choice for me. Besides, this is just a handful of packages so not a major problem. I just thought I could start a thread that benefits myself and others who want to use Kubuntu by getting feedback if these packages are going to impact the system in a major way if I remove them.

[Rob_H]

If you want to exercise very fine-grained control over what gets installed, you might want to consider a distribution like Arch or Gentoo. That way you can opt-in to the packages you want rather than removing.

[Xplorer4x4]

The only one there that I don't think you can simply remove is nepomuk, but why not try each of them?

I am not exactly anxious to screw up my system, backups or not.

sudo apt-get remove <package>

will show you what it is going to remove and ask you if you really want to, just check to see if nothing else important will be removed with it.

I am aware but I notice some times apt prompts me for a yes or no when installing and sometimes it doesn't even though I did not imply -y. I can't recall if it happens every time when doing remove --purge but again, not anxious to put my system in that kind of jeopardy. I don't mind some risk, but this seems like a big risk.

If anything does go wrong you should be able to install kubuntu-desktop to gain back all the required applications.

Well that makes me feel more comfortable but like I said, I don't want to remove something and spend a bunch of time fixing it.

[james147]

The only one there that I don't think you can simply remove is nepomuk, but why not try each of them?

sudo apt-get remove <package>

will show you what it is going to remove and ask you if you really want to, just check to see if nothing else important will be removed with it.

If anything does go wrong you should be able to install kubuntu-desktop to gain back all the required applications.

[Xplorer4x4]

Another thread not just for my own education, but for other newcomers as well. There are some programs and widgets I would like to remove because I have no use for them, and most likely never will. So I wanted to start a thread where myself and others can ask if it is safe to remove certain widgets and programs. I will then try to keep my OP up to date with all the programs and widgets in question and try to list any programs that may break as a result of removing said program(s).

I am a bit tired so sorry if my extended goal is not clear atm, but I just want to ask if it is safe to remove the following:
Panorama(I don't recall this being included in KDE by default but wanted to be sure)
KDE IM Log Viewer
KPPP(I have a cable Internet connection/DOCSIS3 and have no DSL/Dial Up Connection available)
KRandRTray
Nepomuk
KMag
Kvkbd(virtual keyboard)