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If I will ever use Ubuntu 11.04, it will be essential for me to remove both Unity and Zeitgeist completely from it. Can I remove both completely without running into problems with the rest of the OS? I am using automatic login and I am not willing to change this to manually start the OS in classic mode manually.

jokerdino
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Jeannie
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    Mind if I ask why it's essential for Unity and Zeitgeist to be removed? Just curious. – jrg Mar 22 '11 at 20:18
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    I hate the way Unity looks and works, I don't want all these neat icons on my screen, I can't stand the overlay, I hate how everything moves and gets bigger and smaller, the global menu is ninsense for me, I want my panels and I certainly don't want some time based framework to monitor everything I do on my system wasting HDD space and CPU performance. – Jeannie Mar 22 '11 at 22:05
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    Ah. In that case, I suggest that you just return to normal GNOME, as is suggested in this answer: http://askubuntu.com/questions/9861/will-unity-be-the-only-option-during-install/9866#9866 – jrg Mar 22 '11 at 22:08
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    @Jeannie: Zeitgeist doesn't take up much HDD space. After months and months of usage it takes lesser space than a few tracks. Mine is only some 4.6MB as of now. With respect to performance, there is hardly any issues. It takes no more CPU than hundreds of other daemons sitting passively on your system. – Manish Sinha Mar 23 '11 at 05:37
  • OTOH, the traditional gnome-panel wont be maintained in the future. It is (probably) maintained right now till the transition to gnome-shell is over smoothly. In the future you might need to choose between unity and gnome-shell – Manish Sinha Mar 23 '11 at 05:41
  • Then my choice will be another DE. Neither Gnome3 with shell nor Unity are useable for me which is a pity, I have been using Gnome for years now and like t just as it is. Change that kills traditional ways of using a desktop computer is not always good – Jeannie Mar 23 '11 at 07:19
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    This might help you: http://askubuntu.com/questions/28050/i-want-to-use-the-classic-desktop-with-classic-menus-and-classic-gnome-menu-but – Jorge Castro Mar 25 '11 at 19:00
  • I think no, in my case removing zeitgeist was a mistake http://askubuntu.com/questions/45560/unity-stopped-working-after-zeitgeist-uninstall – umpirsky May 27 '11 at 19:49

2 Answers2

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Yes, you can remove both. When you remove them, you will get a warning that the package ubuntu-desktop is getting uninstall. Don't worry it is just a wrapper package.

For removing zeitgeist you need to remove the package named zeitgeist-core which is the base of all the zeitgeist packages.

As per Jorge, unity is the base package for Unity.

Just for knowledge. Why do you want to remove zeitgeist. If you find some technical issues, do contact us. We would be more than happy to fix it.

Manish Sinha
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  • I do not want anything on my system that monitors everything I do on my system and creates a constantly self inflating database. So 11.04 is without Zeitgeist or not at all for me.... – Jeannie Mar 22 '11 at 21:42
  • @Jeannie: Zeitgeist hardly takes up space. It takes less space than your system logs in /var/log/* Right now my DB size is 4.6MB whic is actually very less. – Manish Sinha Mar 23 '11 at 05:39
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You can't remove completely but you can install gnome-activity-journal and remove the history.

Go to preferences, activate "black list manager". Then, go to blacklist, add, delete "[Insert Path]" and insert "*".

Now delete all activity.

Unity-place will now show nothing.

jokerdino
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steveacab
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  • use file://* instead of just * – Manish Sinha Mar 26 '11 at 12:57
  • work fine with * – steveacab Mar 28 '11 at 02:39
  • edit: I have also blocked zeitgeist because I hate it! the dash is no customizable, no option. I dont use zeitgeist and I dont want it, so I have find an alternative to block because I cant remove without remove also other packages.

    Unity dash need an tool for customize it, zeitgeist block, what I want see to first or if I dont want see the apps that I dont have installed, if I want something I search it but the apps proposed leave so space. also in the place.why I must see to first what I have downloaded? have no sense.for not see it I download the files in another folder

     – steveacab Mar 28 '11 at 02:48
  • Unity Dash is powered by Zeitgeist but also remember that the Zeitgeist team has hardly any control over how Unity Dash behaves. Zeitgeist is developed by Zeitgeist team and Dash(part of Unity) is developed by Ayatana team. Zeitgeist can be used without Dash too. You can use Activity Journal – Manish Sinha Mar 28 '11 at 05:42
  • Steve, I cannot understand what you meant by from the line "Unity dash need an tool " till the end. Can you write it in simpler english? – Manish Sinha Mar 28 '11 at 05:44
  • I need an application for disable or enable what I want see in the dash. if I want see or not zeitgeist, if I want see or not what the content in the download folder. – steveacab Mar 28 '11 at 12:39
  • I have installed Activity Journal only for disable zeitgeist in Unity. I dont care zeitgeist, I hate it. – steveacab Mar 28 '11 at 12:42
  • @stevecab: Any special reason to hate zeitgeist? Or are you confusing between Dash and Zeitgeist? Both are separate things – Manish Sinha Mar 28 '11 at 18:04
  • I hate zeitgeist because is useless. I dont care know what I have open 4 days ago or which photo.

    Zeitgeist can be useful in integration with nautilus like in solaris snapshot.

    Now unity show me what I dont want see and use space in the dash that can be used for show more apps.

    In what is useful zeitgeist? I dont have Alzheimer, I remember what I have open.

    So, I remove or block it ever. And if I leave my laptop open, all people can see what I do on my pc and this is so wrong for my privacy and my work.

     – steveacab Mar 30 '11 at 11:56
  • If you know where your files are stored and never forget it and also if you have a count of number of times you opened a file and never forget it too, then you are super-human. Zeitgeist is for humans. – Manish Sinha Mar 31 '11 at 08:00
  • yes, I remember them – steveacab Mar 31 '11 at 18:58
  • so I dont need zeitgeist – steveacab Mar 31 '11 at 19:21
  • @ Manish: Well, I hate Zeitgeist too, cause it's an orwellesque monitoring system that will remember each and everything done on a system and can be used to spy people out quite easy – Jeannie Apr 02 '11 at 14:00
  • @Jeannie: Sorry for bringing you out of your illusion, but your Gnome desktop also logs all the files you opened, saved and closed even without Zeitgeist. The vanilla zeitgeist installation logs exactly as much as Gnome desktop has built in. – Manish Sinha Apr 05 '11 at 12:53
  • Ref to "used to spy people out quite easy", you should be knowing that even though nuclear technology can be used to make bombs, it can still be used to produce clean nuclear energy. If you are panicking that your information can be leaked if your system can be compromised, then in that case you have bigger things to worry about rather than Zeitgeist. For more info, check What about security? section of this link http://zeitgeist-project.com/about/ – Manish Sinha Apr 05 '11 at 12:55
  • Clean Nuclear Energy? Look at Japan and let's talk about clean nuclear energy again. And now let's talk about your Zeitgeist spy framework.... – Jeannie Apr 27 '11 at 22:43
  • Forgot to add that Zeitgeist is in my opinion invasive and something I would expect from a "secret service/police state" – Jeannie Apr 27 '11 at 22:49
  • @jeannie: Yes, it is more cleaner than Coal energy. I think you are not very clear of what zeitgeist is. You should be knowing that even if you remove zeitgeist, your gnome desktop still logs the same information even without zeitgeist. Just because you don't have idea of what is happening under the hood doesn't mean that your system is more secure. – Manish Sinha Jun 20 '11 at 18:51
  • Still your Zeitgeist stuff is a powerful spytool on my system that logs so many infos about what I am doing in a database, now it caneven check what I used before I even installed it and creates some kind of reverse log.Zeitgeist could be used by secret services to spy out citizens, I think it needs to be stopped before it's too late.... – Jeannie Jun 27 '11 at 16:40
  • Well, your system logs even more information(without Zeitgeist) than you even know. Zeitgeist is just arranging them in a proper way which is usable for you. Just because you don't know the amount of info logged, doesn't mean it is not getting logged – Manish Sinha Oct 07 '11 at 22:52