Keep only essential packages

Posted by Stijn on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by Stijn
Published on 2011-11-16T00:17:46Z Indexed on 2011/11/16 2:09 UTC
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packages

In an attempt to learn more about Ubuntu and its packages, I want to remove all non-essential packages, so I can install what I need, when I need them and know what they do.

I'm using the commands dpkg --clear-selections and apt-get dselect-upgrade for this. I also slightly modify the selection by setting apt libstdc++6 (due to apt) install-info (due to grep) to install again (somehow dpkg thinks they are not essential, but apt-get complains).

Is this ok, or is this bad? If it's ok, what do I do with the large list of packages with "deinstall" status in dpkg?

An additional note, I'm doing this on a VPS template so I have no control over the initially installed packages.

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