Re: Unnecessary packages?
On Fri, 25 Oct 2019 15:21:18 +0000
"J.Arun Mani" <J.ArunMani@protonmail.com> wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I recently installed Debain Buster GNOME Edition. I found a
> lot of apps which are rarely used by me.
> 1. Fcitx, Fcitx config - I don't what these apps do and they aren't
> even launching. 2. Anthy Dictionary - No use.
> 3. Cheese, Sound Recorder - My laptop doesn't have a camera or
> mic(:[). 4. Evolution, Thunderbird - I use Protonmail and they don't
> offer support for Linux Bridges. 5. HDate(*) - I'm not a Hebrew
> speaker. 6. XTerm - I'm good with GNOME Terminal.
> 7. Thai X Terminal(*) - I don't speak Thai.
> 8. Multilingual Terminal(*) - No no.
> 9. Mozc Setup - What's it?
> 10. Games - ...
>
> I feel that though, apps excluding the starred ones might have a use,
> but really 5, 7, 8 are not generally used apps. It is used by a
> particular community and not by all! My question is "Is there a valid
> reason why Debian includes these (5, 7, 8) packages by default?" And
> will uninstalling them (all apps mentioned above) cause any trouble?
>
The short answer is: 'you installed Gnome'. You therefore get whatever
the Gnome developers (not necessarily Debian developers) think you
should have.
The 'big' desktop environments, Gnome and KDE, are exactly that. You
install them if you have plenty of disc space and you want *everything*,
including the kitchen sink. The fundamental idea is that one
installation works for everyone, so that Thais don't have to do extra
work to install their terminal.
You could install just a command-line environment, then add exactly what
you actually want. When you add graphical applications, they will pull
in the necessary infrastructure automatically. You'll still get a few
unwanted programs this way, but far fewer than with a DE.
Or you can go somewhere between, and install a 'lightweight' desktop
environment such as Xfce or LXDE. You'll again get some stuff you don't
want, but less than with Gnome. Again, add anything you want that isn't
there.
Removing things, as others have said, is a bit risky. You need to spend
some time with the apt tools, finding what depends on the item you wish
to remove, so you know what will break when you remove it. It's a very
slow process, when there are hundreds or even thousands of packages you
don't (currently) need.
Or more quickly, you can install alacarte, the menu editor, and remove
everything you don't want to see on the menus. Unless you actually have
a small SSD (as I do in my netbook), you won't really gain anything by
removing the applications themselves. My fairly large unstable desktop
installation is 25GB, a drop in the ocean of a terabyte drive. I
probably only use four or five GB of that, but I can't be bothered
trying to trim it down. Life is too short.
It's a balance of convenience against minimalism. You can spend a lot
of time installing exactly what you want, or you can go with somebody
else's choices very quickly. Your decision.
--
Joe
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