On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 06:48:13AM -0600, DaVince wrote: > > Some useful info for you on this: uninstalling and reinstalling the > same version of one specific application usually has completely zero > effect in Linux. Why? Because nothing actually changes. > > In Windows, when you uninstall an application, the configuration files > and settings belonging to that specific application are usually wiped, > too. This is why when you reinstall it, things could suddenly work. > > However, it doesn't work like that with package management in Linux: > you only purely install or uninstall the application and the settings > will still stay there even after uninstalling (unless you force it by > "completely removing" and manually deleting the configuration files). > This is why reinstalling the same app most likely has completely no > effect on Linux. That's not a very accurate description, I'm afraid. Package management on Linux allows you to have a choice of removing and reinstalling _only_ the programs while keeping the configuration files (which is often the desired case), but it also allows you to completely purge the package and the system configuration files. This, of course, does not include any per-user configuration - those files would have to be removed manually if you wanted a complete scorched-earth wipe - but this isn't any different from Windows. Otherwise, removing MS Office would wipe out every single doc file you ever wrote. -- * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *
