|
Have you ever tried to remove the Evolution email program that comes by default in Ubuntu? If so, you know well what a headache it can be. The problem, actually, is very simple: some of the Evolution packages are dependencies of other packages and these, when Evolution is uninstalled, necessarily ask to be uninstalled as well so as not to "break" the dependencies. Now, the problem is that these packages, which have as dependencies some of those that make up Evolution, are key to the proper functioning of Ubuntu. For this reason, when trying to uninstall Evolution like this ...
sudo apt-get remove evolution * … A lot of other packages will want to uninstall, the most important being those related to the gnome panel and the famous meta-package ubuntu-desktop (which in itself does not install any program but which articulates all the packages that make up a "normal" Ubuntu installation and, therefore, if it is not installed, Ubuntu cannot be updated when a new version appears).
|
The reasons for wanting to delete Evolution
- Linux offers us something great, really great: freedom. Among other things, this means that if we don't like a program, we delete it and that's it. If we like more another we install it and that's it. In other words, does not require us to use specific software. The programs that come by default in the distros are, let's say, "recommendations", but nothing more. In Windows, as we well know, this is completely different.
- Let's say I like Thunderbird better, for example. Is it logical to have 2 email clients installed, especially if there is one that I don't use at all?
- Another typical case: I look at all my emails through web clients (GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.). Ergo, I don't need Evolution and I want to delete it.
- I need disk space !! I already deleted all the caches, the temporary files, everything ... and still I'm short ... Oh, I know, I'm going to delete that little program that I never use. What was it called? Oh yeah: Evolution.
In short, the reasons can be many and varied. Strictly speaking, the solution I offer below doesn't completely remove Evolution, but it comes very close . As far as the user experience is concerned, Evolution will disappear from the Applications menu, and 53.3 MB of disk space will be freed up.
We open the terminal and write:
sudo aptitude purge evolution-indicator evolution evolution-documentation-en evolution-common evolution-data-server evolution-webcal evolution-plugins
Update : I've received some feedback saying that this method "breaks" the user's personal data. Specifically, deleting evolution-data-server renders System > Preferences > About Me unusable. This is entirely true. However, I don't know anyone who actually fills in that data, nor do I know of any application that uses it. Anyway, if you don't want that to stop working, simply omit evolution-data-server from the command above.
One last comment before you ask me. Yes, you can delete Evolution from Synaptic or with either of these two methods ...
sudo aptitude purge evolution
sudo apt-get purge evolution
... but this method will only free up 8MB of disk space (against 53,3 for my method) and will leave a lot of "orphaned" packages.
Please don't misunderstand this post. Evolution is a great program, in every way. I don't think it's bad that it comes by default in Ubuntu. What bothers me is that it is not easy to erase it. =)