|Computer Janitor is evil and must be stopped!

[t0p]

Okay, so I was surfing my System menus in Jaunty, and I thought "Oh, Computer Janitor! I never used that before!" So I clicked on it and typed in my password, thus giving the power to do whatever it could trick me into asking it to do. Bad Janitor!

It said it wanted to help keep my system "clean", and put up a list of possible cruft. This list consisted of:

adobe-certs (.deb package)
eeepc-tray (.deb package)
get_iplayer (.deb package)
nxclient (.deb package)
truecrypt (.deb package)

Please note that this is all stuff I installed myself by downloading .deb files. Also note the words (.deb package) that appears after each name.

I thought, "Ah, these are the .debs that I downloaded. I don't need them anymore, now the stuff's installed. They can go." And I clicked "Cleanup" (Computer Janitor had helpfully ticked "Remove/clean" for each item).

Those package names disappeared from the list. And were replaced by more. Packages with more obscure names, like "ldv32 (.deb package)" and "libid3-3.8.3c2a (.deb package)". I started to feel uneasy. Were these dependencies of the applications whose ".deb packages" I had just "cleaned up"? I closed Computer Janitor and, with trepidation, opened my Applications menu. And guess what? You got it. Truecrypt and NXClient had gone! A quick "which get_iplayer" revealed that get_iplayer had also gone. Not the ".deb packages" - or at least, not what I recognize as ".deb packages". The applications themselves!

Why oh why does Computer Janitor operate in this way? If the list had labelled the items (Applications) rather than (.deb packages) I would never have done this ridiculous thing. As it is, I now have to go scooting around the web re-downloading all this stuff that I actually need.

Computer Janitor is obviously a more newbie-oriented tool. Old hands don't need it. And it presents itself extremely poorly. I hate the janitor and I want to sack him!

[NoaHall]

+1

I hate it so much, that I've hidden it from my menu to prevent madness overcoming me.

[hoppipolla]

lol! I'm sure it will improve - this kind of tool is useful for noooobies but maybe it needs some refining! hehe

[3rdalbum]

Computer Janitor is useful in the correct hands; it does actually suggest configuration changes that will improve performance although most people don't see that side of it because Ubuntu is configured correctly by default.

I'm beginning to think that it shouldn't remove Debian packages at all, unless they have been explicitly listed by Canonical as problematic or obsolete. Not just "locally-installed".

[hoppipolla]

Computer Janitor is useful in the correct hands; it does actually suggest configuration changes that will improve performance although most people don't see that side of it because Ubuntu is configured correctly by default.

I'm beginning to think that it shouldn't remove Debian packages at all, unless they have been explicitly listed by Canonical as problematic or obsolete. Not just "locally-installed".

Couldn't it just do an apt-get autoremove, and offer to remove any applications which haven't been used in say... a month or so?

[Paqman]

Hmm, mostly a PEBKAC issue, with perhaps a smidgen of a genuine usability gripe It probably shouldn't offer to remove locally installed stuff by default.

[wilee-nilee]

Auto-remove and auto-clean will do most of the work, but Ubuntu Tweak has a nice cleaner that has never failed me, and doesn't remove important installs.

[Tmi]

I was close to doing the same think a week or so ago. In the last second the thought occured to me that I think I've manually removed the .deb and that it might mean that it will remove the whole application instead. Thus I didn't click, luckily enough.

[Tristam Green]

It did what it said it would - clear your hdd of stuff it deems you don't need.

...and you people say that Microsoft has a stranglehold on how you use your computers.

[joey-elijah]

Auto-remove and auto-clean will do most of the work, but Ubuntu Tweak has a nice cleaner that has never failed me, and doesn't remove important installs.

QFT.

I look at Computer Janitor.. and look at UT package cleaner and i know which one wins.

(It's the one that actually cleans.)