unneeded apps [SOLVED]

[jarp53]

so for what i understand is that one does not uninstall apps because they may use support files that are also use by other apps ; if this is correct i can simply keep them from showing up by unchecked them from menu editor, but to make my system light, can i blacklist them in update manager or is that not a good idea for the sake of those support files that the apps use ?

[Pierre]

you can simply keep them from showing up by unchecked them from menu editor,
and to make your system light, you can also blacklist them in update manager ..
& that will work, but you really don't need to play with the Linux Settings that much,
as it is already much lighter that System that came with your machine.

[smurphos]

If it's installed keep it updated...if you don't need it uninstall it.

There is no reason not to remove unneeded applications as long as it is done with care. Whichever method you use for uninstall the system will warn you if additional packages will be removed as a result because of dependencies. If it does take a step back. If you are not sure what an obscure package is doing on the system leave it alone.

Using apt remove -s <package name> will simulate removal.

E.g. removing Firefox is safe as only Firefox will be removed.

Code: Select all

steve@steve-HP-Pavilion-g6-Notebook-PC:~$ apt remove -s firefox
[sudo] password for steve: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED
  firefox
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 1 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.
Remv firefox [61.0.1+linuxmint1+tara]

but removing flatpak support isn't as it will take some mint core-components with it.

Code: Select all

steve@steve-HP-Pavilion-g6-Notebook-PC:~$ apt remove -s flatpak
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED
  flatpak mint-meta-cinnamon mint-meta-core mintinstall
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 4 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.
Remv mint-meta-cinnamon [2018.06.08]
Remv mint-meta-core [2018.06.08]
Remv mintinstall [7.9.5]
Remv flatpak [0.11.7-0ubuntu0.1]

[Moem]

What do you have in mind when you talk about making your system 'light'?

Unused applications do not use memory, they just use a little bit of storage.

[jarp53]

Is that i don't use a lot of apps ( for instance: chromium, fire fox, Thunderbird ) so I don't see the need for update manager to continue to add more stuff if the my system don't need it , I still have 20 GB left in the hard drive for this system , but I just think that the less unneeded the better

[srq2625]

Is that i don't use a lot of apps ( for instance: chromium, fire fox, Thunderbird ) so I don't see the need for update manager to continue to add more stuff if the my system don't need it , I still have 20 GB left in the hard drive for this system , but I just think that the less unneeded the better

Update Manager usually doesn't "add more stuff" when it does an update of installed packages. What it usually does is to replace packages. This may cause a slight increase in the amount of disk space used, but with 20GB still available on your system, you'll not notice the difference.

[smurphos]

srq2625 is on the money - updates to existing packages will rarely take up more space*

Firefox and Thunderbird are fine to remove. if you haven't installed the full Chromium browser the Chromium updates you see in Update Manager are only for a Chromoim component - the package chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra. This is installed as part of the codecs meta package and is used by other apps. You do want it and you do want it updated....

* the exception to updates not taking up more space are kernel updates. You do want kernel updates - they are generally security related, but each new kernel does take up a significant amount of extra space. It's good practise to use the Update Manager (via view > kernels) to remove older kernels on a fairly regular basis just keeping the kernel in use and one older 'backup' kernel.

[jarp53]

thanks you all, you just confirm the reason why I use Linux as my main OS , a much better support team that the other two OS's that i have

[Hoser Rob]

so for what i understand is that one does not uninstall apps because they may use support files that are also use by other apps ...

There's some truth to that, which is why it's advised when installing or removing Linux software, there will be a list of apps that will be deleted if you continue. You need to actually READ that stuff. If I see a list of software to be removed and it looks important or I don't understand it, I abort.

[jarp53]

got it