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I don't want Evolution, Tracker and other packages in my computer (Ubuntu 14.04, GNOME 3.9, Shell 3.10.4), but GNOME depends on these packages . I've read some tricks for disabling some of them without really removing their packages. Despite this methods, I'd like to know the reason for doing GNOME this way.

I don't want to be FUD'ish, but in Windows there is "Turn Windows features on or off". Given the architectural superiority of Linux in this sense, shouldn't it be easier to disable these packages?

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    I'm pretty sure it is. Are you sure you're not confusing Gnome (the DE) and ubuntu-gnome-desktop (the package)?
    – terdon
    May 4, 2014 at 10:45
  • In Synaptic, when I try to uninstall the tracker package, the packages gnome and gnome-core get marked for uninstalling as well...
    – Isra
    May 4, 2014 at 11:03

1 Answer 1

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Both the gnome and gnome-core packages are meta-packages. Removing them does not actually remove any installed programs.

Briefly, meta-packages are a way of bundling multiple packages together. Installing a meta package will install these other packages but removing it will not actually uninstall anything. Synaptic is selecting them for deinstallation because one of their components is being removed. However, you will find that no other packages are removed and you will still be able to use your Gnome desktop.

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