Minimal Install

[GrumpyLizard]

I have Zorin 17 Pro because of the extra desktop layouts. Now Zorin installs too many programs that I don't need. When I uninstall them, Zorin keeps some of the programs for later reinstallation of the apps. I don't want that. That's why I would like to install Minimal but it says without Premium desktop layouts. Is it possible to install the 6 Premium desktop layouts later?

[Ponce-De-Leon]

You could try the Following: Open the Terminal and type:

sudo apt install zorin-appearance-layouts-shell-premium

[Mr_Magoo]

You can use purge to completely get rid of whatever you don't want (assuming there isn't some dependency or reverse-dependency that prevents it... be very careful... if you see it wanting to uninstall anything that has "Zorin" or "Gnome" in the package name, halt the whole process or you'll likely bork your install).

So, for instance, say I wanted to get rid of a fictional package named RoundCalc:
sudo apt purge roundcalc

Now, let's use a real-world example... say I want to completely get rid of the package apg, but I'm not sure what would be removed along with it due to dependencies and reverse-dependencies:
sudo apt purge -s apg

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  cheese-common gnome-control-center-data gnome-online-accounts gstreamer1.0-clutter-3.0 libcheese-gtk25 libcheese8 libclutter-gst-3.0-0 libclutter-gtk-1.0-0
  libcolord-gtk1 libgoa-backend-1.0-1 libhandy-1-0 libwhoopsie-preferences0 libwhoopsie0 network-manager-gnome python3-macaroonbakery python3-protobuf
  python3-rfc3339 python3-tz whoopsie-preferences
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  apg* gnome-control-center*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 9 not upgraded.
Purg gnome-control-center [1:3.38.6-0ubuntu1+zorin3]
Purg apg [2.2.3.dfsg.1-5]

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I know from experience that removing gnome-control-center causes problems, as well as removing network-manager-gnome and any of cheese except the user interface package. So I cannot purge apg, it is needed in order for the machine to run.

But I'm safe, because I used the  -s  flag, which simulates the operation... it doesn't actually do anything except print to the screen what it would have done.

You can find out which packages you can purge via:
sudoedit /var/lib/dpkg/status (if you have sudoedit set up)

-- or --

Right-click /var/lib/dpkg/status, select "Edit as Administrator" (if you have Nautilus Admin installed)

-- or --

sudo gedit /var/lib/dpkg/status
... do a search for 'deinstall'... those are the packages that are uninstalled but not purged.

If you want a nifty graphic of your dependencies and reverse-dependencies:

Visual representation of package dependencies and reverse-dependencies

Here's a neat way to visualize the dependencies and reverse-dependencies for any given package. First, you'll need to install apt-rdepends, a dependency and reverse-dependency parser: sudo apt install apt-rdepends And you'll need to install graphvis, a graph visualization package: sudo apt install graphviz Ok, so your packages are listed in /var/lib/dpkg/status. And you can get a list of your installed packages via sudo apt list --installed. Let's take one of the packages at random... 'das…

If you want a text list of your dependencies and reverse-dependencies:

Find dependencies and reverse-dependencies for all packages at once

Ok, so you can use rdepends {packagename} (if you've got rdepends installed) or sudo apt-cache depends {packagename} and sudo apt-cache rdepends {packagename} to get the dependencies and reverse-dependencies of any given package. But what if you want all of the dependencies and reverse-dependencies for all your packages without having to cut-n-paste the package name more than a thousand times? for packages in $(sudo apt list --installed 2>/dev/null | awk -F '/' '{if (NR!=1) print $1}'); do sud…

If you want a list of all the packages on your system (and where you can download them from:

Create a list of every installed package on your system (and where to get them)

Just in case something crashes on my system, I decided to create a list of all installed packages and where to get them. First, install Synaptic: sudo apt install synaptic After it's installed, start it up. Its shortcut should be in Zorin menu > System Tools. Enter your password, then click the  Status  button at bottom-left. Click the "Installed" menu item at top-left. (Nearly) all of your installed packages will be listed in the sub-window at upper-right. Select all of the packages, righ…

[GrumpyLizard]

ah ok...purge...I hadn't thought of that yet. there are only apps like Blender and co that I don't need, but there are a lot of them. Brasero is pointless because I don't have a burner. Thank you very much

[Bruce3]

A good question here, and similar to what i am trying to do for one person who is migrating from Windows to ZorinOS.
We wish to have the closest windows look-and feel. But absolutely do not want a ton of high-end graphics etc. programs installed along with the customize Windows desktop UI.
So currently I have set her up with ZorinOS Core 16.3 (dual booting on her Thinkpad).
We would be fine with supporting the PRO version, but don't wish to install GB of unneeded programs.
What we would wish: ZorinOS PRO, with a user selectable way to skip over the unneeded programs (Blender type, etc).

[GrumpyLizard]

Actually, I don't want Windows and no Windows look, but I would like to have a change. What I don't like are programs that I can't and won't use. A customized installer would be better here. I mean we can fly to the moon but a software selection before the installation is more and more often a problem.