One of the most controversial entities (for lack of a better word) in the Linux world today is Mono. I won't go into a lot of detail here, because I would prefer to avoid yet another shouting match about it - there are plenty of those around, if you care to take part in one. What I will do here is simply present the command necessary to purge Mono and anything that depends on it from the Ubuntu Lucid Lynx distribution.
sudo apt-get purge libmono* libgdiplus cli-common libglitz-glx1 libglitz1
At the user interface / desktop level, what you will actually be removing when you execute this command is tomboy and F-Spot. As it happens, I personally don't like either of those, and I have long since found alternatives to both that I like a lot better.
The same command works on the two Ubuntu/Gnome-based derivatives I have here, Linux Mint 9 and EasyPeasy 1.6, with very slightly different results. Mint does not include F-Spot in the base distribution, so you only lose tomboy, and EasyPeasy doesn't include F-Spot but does include banshee, which also gets removed.
The non-Gnome Ubuntu variants I have checked (Kubuntu and Xubuntu) do not include Mono, so this command is not necessary, and is a no-op if you try it anyway.
If you are interested in why one might want to banish Mono, one place to look would be the Mono-Nono web site.
jw 6/5/2010
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It's best to keep it installed. Mono is an excellent runtime client; especially when compared to that Java mess. If only Open Office was built on Mono instead of Java.
@chessnuts - Thanks for reading and commenting. There are a lot of people who disagree with you about Mono. I am one of them.
jw
Nice... Thanks! (I agree, it's not worth keeping Microsoft-mono-security-and-friends packages just to use Tomboy whose value is at best questionable.)
Would you like sharing with us what is the alternative you like better than F-Spot?
Thanks
Alternative that's better than F-Spot? How about Digikam, which totally beats it into the ground without requiring microsoft-friendly runtimes.
@Fiedlunix - I've always thought that digiKam was significantly better than F-Spot, and I still do. However, I have recently been very pleased by shotwell, which is included with Fedora 13.
jw
Thanks for the post! I definitely agree on Mono, the entire situation with that is it originates from Microsoft. The same goes for Moonlight in my opinion, which falls short from Silverlight anyway. At least Java (even with its problems) is truly cross platform. Tomboy has been replaced by GNote in Fedora 12, which has been said to be a port of Tomboy, but not Mono-based.
Out of interest, what is your alternative to Tomboy?
@CharlesC - I generally use Gnote
jw
Am I wrong or will Mono/Moonlight or Silverlight be required to view the 2012 Olympic Games in London via the Internet. I read it somewhere!
Moley - I think I remember reading something about that as well - in fact I think that I read it here. But I just did a quick search here for "silverlight olympics" here, and the only relevant hit that I saw had to do with the 2010 Olympics. A more specific search produced a hit that was a job advert, mentioning Silverlight and the London Olympics, but that didn't say anything specific.