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I'm running lubuntu 13.04 on my Asus netbook. I want to get rid of Abiword (because I think it corrupted an ODT file). However, when I select it for complete removal in Synaptic Package Manager (SPM) I'm informed that lubuntu-desktop will also be removed.

My rough googling informs me that this is the desktop environment suggesting that getting rid of it could have dire consequences. I'm a bit confused. Why should Abiword be tightly bound to lubuntu-desktop? More importantly, what will be the effect of getting rid of lubuntu-desktop? Could this be an error on SPM's part?

paulkorir@paulkorir-X101CH:~$ sudo apt-get remove abiword abiword-common
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  conglomerate-common libbonoboui2-0 libbonoboui2-common libgnomeui-0 
  libgnomeui-common
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  abiword abiword-common lubuntu-desktop
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 3 to remove and 17 not upgraded.
After this operation, 15.4 MB disk space will be freed.   
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
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lubuntu-desktop is just a metapackage that install all lubuntu-related packages in a single step, hence it depends of all the packages that comes installed by default in any lubuntu installation. It can be deleted safely but you should be sure that only that package and nothing more gets uninstalled along with:

sudo apt-get remove lubuntu-desktop

With that, just remove the dependency that you want get rid of:

sudo apt-get remove abiword

And it's done.

Your method by Synaptic is equal good, but again, be sure only the packages that you want gone are removed.

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  • Thanks for both responses. I hope I don't find something sinister the next time I reboot!
    – polarise
    Jul 3, 2013 at 10:12
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    I've also deleted abiword (and gnumeric and a bunch of other stuff) and so don't have lubuntu-desktop. You'll be just fine on your next reboot! The only possible complication that may arise is if you choose to upgrade your Lubuntu down the road. I always back up my data and do a clean install instead of an in situ upgrade. So I don't miss lubuntu-desktop one bit.
    – user25656
    Jul 3, 2013 at 12:38
  • I'm pleased to report that nothing sinister happened... ;-)
    – polarise
    Jul 8, 2013 at 9:19

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