Reply To: Software: On & Off the Web

In the past, I’ve mentioned that I dislike the apt package manager. Got an example of a reason!

1. Installed Code::Blocks
2. Didn’t like the looks of it, so uninstalled
3. Realized that APT didn’t uninstall all of the dependencies as they’re suggested packages of other packages even though I didn’t want them in the first place (I’ve never used gdb, for instance)
4. Spend thirty minutes trying to track down everything since APT doesn’t keep good logs and I had already cleared the terminal window (most package managers have a revert command to easily reverse an install or have better dependency resolution)
5. Finally hunt them down and remove everything

This isn’t really an issue with other package managers and APT also doesn’t have settings to display things in a nice manner. Everything is just displayed on a single line instead of a column view, making it hard to look at at a glance. Its settings file is also poorly documented and the package manager itself lacks a lot of handy features. It’s also very cumbersome to query various package information compared to other package managers. Do like PopOS but not their package manager of choice. /sigh