[LBo] Removing KDE from Ubuntu depends on how you installed it.

[Anita Lewis]

On 07/19/2007 03:22 PM Troy wrote:

> 
> For a newer Linux users like myself, can you give
> a brief overview of the history, difference, and pros and cons of aptitude,
> apt-get, and synaptic.


There's a little bit here:
http://linuxbasics.org/course/book/sect_07_05#7.5.2.2._deb_.deb_packages

There are mixed reports on pros and cons, especially regarding aptitude.
I know from personal experience that it can get a little radical with
removing packages which it deems not necessary.  But I imagine that had
to do with using it after as a trial after using mostly apt-get and
synaptic. Note in the page I've given, it says not to mix them.

Also as indicated elsewhere, apt-get now gives a message when there are
packages that are no longer needed to meet dependencies. It tells you to
run 'apt-get autoremove'.

Big pro for apt-get is speed for installing a package or two without
waiting for the GUI to load.  Big pro for aptitude or synaptic is being
able to search for a package, although there is 'apt-cache search' as
well which is fast.

Learning a little about dpkg can be very helpful, because you can
install packages you've downloaded with that. dpkg can also be used to
quickly check for installed packages or what package a certain file came
from and what files are contained in a certain package.

Another thing to round this out is 'checkinstall' which allows you to
install from source creating a .deb (or other type of package). This way
your installed source can later be removed with your package manager and
you don't have to go looking for the files and removing them manually.
checkinstall is a separate package and not usually already installed on
a system.  See
http://linuxbasics.org/tutorials/using/installing_applications#installing_from_source_using_checkinstall_and_the_package_manager

Anita