FreeCAD keeps showing up in apps

When I was uninstalling some of the preinstalled apps I noticed that FreeCAD shows up in the app menu whether it's installed or not.

Check if it is installed as Flatpak

flatpak list

Snap

snap list

or Apt:

dpkg -s freecad*

Freecad also comes as an appimage... Have you ever installed Freecad?

Thanks for the reply. I have never installed FreeCAD. It came installed off the 16.2 image.

This is as follows:

flatpak list

Name        Application ID          Version     Branch     Origin  Installation
Barrier     …thub.debauchee.barrier 2.3.4       stable     flathub system
Foliate     …b.johnfactotum.Foliate 2.6.4       stable     flathub system
Minder      …ithub.phase1geo.minder 1.14.0      stable     flathub system
Xournal++   …ub.xournalpp.xournalpp 1.1.2       stable     flathub system
Blanket     …rafaelmardojai.Blanket 0.6.0       stable     flathub system
HomeBank    fr.free.Homebank        5.5.5       stable     flathub system
HandBrake   fr.handbrake.ghb        1.5.1       stable     flathub system
jExifToolG… …b.hvdwofl.jExifToolGUI 2.0.1       stable     flathub system
Kooha       io.github.seadve.Kooha  1.2.1       stable     flathub system
Scribus     net.scribus.Scribus     1.5.8       stable     flathub system
Color Pick… nl.hjdskes.gcolor3      2.4.0       stable     flathub system
Blender     org.blender.Blender     3.3.1       stable     flathub system
Codecs      …blender.Blender.Codecs             stable     flathub system
TAP-plugins …LinuxAudio.Plugins.TAP 1.0.1       21.08      flathub system
SWH         …LinuxAudio.Plugins.swh 0.4.17      21.08      flathub system
Freedeskto… …g.freedesktop.Platform 21.08.16    21.08      flathub system
Freedeskto… …g.freedesktop.Platform 22.08.2.1   22.08      flathub system
Mesa        …op.Platform.GL.default 21.1.8      20.08      flathub system
Mesa        …op.Platform.GL.default 21.3.9      21.08      flathub system
Mesa        …op.Platform.GL.default mesa-22.1.7 22.08      flathub system
Intel       …p.Platform.VAAPI.Intel             20.08      flathub system
Intel       …p.Platform.VAAPI.Intel             21.08      flathub system
Intel       …p.Platform.VAAPI.Intel             22.08      flathub system
ffmpeg-full …p.Platform.ffmpeg-full             21.08      flathub system
openh264    …ktop.Platform.openh264 2.1.0       2.0        flathub system
openh264    …ktop.Platform.openh264 2.1.0       2.2.0      flathub system
Feeds       org.gabmus.gfeeds       2.0.1       stable     flathub system
Break Timer org.gnome.BreakTimer    2.1.0       stable     flathub system
GNOME Netw… ….gnome.NetworkDisplays 0.90.4      stable     flathub system
Password S… org.gnome.PasswordSafe  5.1         stable     flathub system
GNOME Appl… org.gnome.Platform                  3.38       flathub system
GNOME Appl… org.gnome.Platform                  40         flathub system
GNOME Appl… org.gnome.Platform                  41         flathub system
GNOME Appl… org.gnome.Platform                  42         flathub system
GNOME Appl… org.gnome.Platform                  43         flathub system
ZorinBlue-… …k3theme.ZorinBlue-Dark             3.22       zorinos system
ZorinBlue-… …3theme.ZorinBlue-Light             3.22       zorinos system
ZorinGreen… …3theme.ZorinGreen-Dark             3.22       zorinos system
ZorinGreen… …theme.ZorinGreen-Light             3.22       zorinos system
ZorinGrey-… …k3theme.ZorinGrey-Dark             3.22       zorinos system
ZorinGrey-… …3theme.ZorinGrey-Light             3.22       zorinos system
ZorinOrang… …theme.ZorinOrange-Dark             3.22       zorinos system
ZorinOrang… …heme.ZorinOrange-Light             3.22       zorinos system
ZorinPurpl… …theme.ZorinPurple-Dark             3.22       zorinos system
ZorinPurpl… …heme.ZorinPurple-Light             3.22       zorinos system
ZorinRed-D… …tk3theme.ZorinRed-Dark             3.22       zorinos system
ZorinRed-L… …k3theme.ZorinRed-Light             3.22       zorinos system
Inkscape    org.inkscape.Inkscape   1.2.1       stable     flathub system
Adwaita th… org.kde.KStyle.Adwaita              5.15       flathub system
Adwaita th… org.kde.KStyle.Adwaita              5.15-21.08 flathub system
KDE Applic… org.kde.Platform                    5.15       flathub system
KDE Applic… org.kde.Platform                    5.15-21.08 flathub system
KDE Applic… org.kde.Platform                    6.3        flathub system
QGnomePlat… …rmTheme.QGnomePlatform             5.15       flathub system
QGnomePlat… …rmTheme.QGnomePlatform             5.15-21.08 flathub system
QGnomePlat… …rmTheme.QGnomePlatform             6.3        flathub system
QtSNI       …de.PlatformTheme.QtSNI             5.15       flathub system
QtSNI       …de.PlatformTheme.QtSNI             5.15-21.08 flathub system
QGnomePlat… …omePlatform-decoration             5.15       flathub system
QGnomePlat… …omePlatform-decoration             5.15-21.08 flathub system
QGnomePlat… …omePlatform-decoration             6.3        flathub system
Kdenlive    org.kde.kdenlive        22.08.2     stable     flathub system
Krita       org.kde.krita           5.1.1       stable     flathub system

snap list

No snaps are installed yet. Try 'snap install hello-world'.

dpkg -s freecad*

dpkg-query: error: --status needs a valid package name but 'freecad*' is not: illegal package name in specifier 'freecad*': character '*' not allowed (only letters, digits and characters '-+._')

Use --help for help about querying packages.

let's try:

dpkg -s freecad

dpkg -s freecad

dpkg-query: package 'freecad' is not installed and no information is available
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files.

OK... so it is not installed as Flatpak, Snap or in APT.
That leaves only appimage...
Which... I have no idea how to check that.
What happens if you Launch Freecad?
Does the app launch? Does it have a Menu bar where you can select About?

What happens if you Launch Freecad? - It does nothing
Does the app launch? Does it have a Menu bar where you can select About? - It takes me to the page in the screenshot for the store

Oh.
Is it...
An Advertisement...? :neutral_face:
That... 100% sounds like an Advertisement, to me.

Zorin has advertisements?

If it does, that is news to me.

But I know that Canonical (Ubuntu) has done it, before. There was quite an issue over some partnership with Amazon being heavily advertised in gnome-software, with no easy way to remove it.
After user negative feedbac, Canonical stopped doing that... for a while...
And Windows 11 currently now carries Advertisements in the Start Menu- a very unpopular move.

I wonder if some Ubuntu updates that were included in Zorin 16.2 point release carried this.

Edit: I have tagged this thread for ZorinGroup to review.

1 Like

Yeah, I am a serial distro hopper always trying different options. I really enjoy my privacy and security however I am not smart enough to configure things and keep up to what my needs are. I feel Zorin had a fairly decent handle on that after I read their documentation - including removing the tracking and adding a checked box if you want to participate and statements about pings back to a server for transparency. I've supported Zorin by purchasing Pro a bit ago but recently reinstalled it and noticed I can't get this one app gone. I didn't think Zorin would succumb to advertising like that too.

I really wouldn't either.
This is something that appears a certain way, but let's not jump to any conclusions.
I have tagged this to the ZorinGroup to review - It may be something far simpler and I am just in poor form tonight.

Check your ~/.local/share/applications. Maybe there is a desktop file left from the other distro?

This is a fresh install with everything wiped and repartitioned

I can confirm that this isn't an ad, and that we have absolutely no plans to introduce advertising to the desktop.

Technical explanation

When pre-installing a few of the apps in the Pro edition, their menu launchers (provided by the upstream package maintainers) can sometimes be configured by default to appear in a few menu categories at one time – such as in the Graphics and Science categories for FreeCAD. Not only can this be confusing to some users, it can cause the menu to display some categories with only 1 item in them – like FreeCAD being the only item in the Science category in Zorin OS Pro. This is messy and less than ideal.

As a result, we substitute the menu launchers (.desktop files) of a small number of apps in Zorin OS Pro. They're based on the original menu launchers provided by the package maintainers, but are slightly modified to behave more sensibly. They don't overwrite the original menu launchers, but are new .desktop files that are placed in the /usr/share/[session-name]/applications directory, so they take precedence over the original ones in the Zorin Deskop sessions.

These substituted launchers get removed if the user selects to install Zorin OS Pro with the "Minimal installation" option (which uninstalls the additional productivity apps and creative suite). However, if the user installs Zorin OS with the "Normal installation" option but later uninstalls some of these apps manually, it may still leave behind these substituted launchers.

How to remove the launcher

If you wish to remove only the substituted launcher for FreeCAD, simply open the Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and enter these 3 commands:

sudo rm /usr/share/zorin/applications/org.freecadweb.FreeCAD.desktop
sudo rm /usr/share/zorin-wayland/applications/org.freecadweb.FreeCAD.desktop
sudo rm /usr/share/zorin-os-lite/applications/org.freecadweb.FreeCAD.desktop

If you manually removed all of the additional apps in Zorin OS Pro but still see some of their launchers in the menu, you can remove all of the substituted launchers by entering this command in the Terminal:

sudo apt remove zorin-os-pro-productivity-apps zorin-os-pro-creative-suite
7 Likes

That was a beautiful explanation and I thank you for going in depth with the reasoning as well. I didn't think you would have any form of adverts in the System however i'm also pretty dumb at times.

You guys rock and I can't wait for 17 and support that one as well!

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