Ubuntu – Ubuntu 16.04 doesn’t let me to uninstall applications

16.04software-uninstall

I like to have only what I need on my computer and hence I always follow the practice of removing the programs I know I'm not going to use.

I just downloaded Ubuntu 16.04 LTS but I'm unable to uninstall applications. I go to the Software Center and hit remove for the apps I want to (Mozilla, Mahjong, Solitaire, etc). Everything seems to work. However, after twenty seconds the Software Center refreshes itself and the apps are back!!
Please, help! It's really annoying.

Is there any way to remove these apps from the Terminal?

Best Answer

I ran into a similar problem. I would click the "Remove" button in the software center, but the applications would re-appear after a short period. I did this for the Aisle Riot Solitaire program, for example, and it kept coming back. When I went to remove it with the command line, however, it said it was not installed:

$ sudo apt-get purge aisleriot
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package 'aisleriot' is not installed, so not removed
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 87 not upgraded.

After more investigation (read: blind clicking), I discovered that clicking the refresh icon on the Updates tab actually seemed to refresh the Installed tab as well (even though the refresh icon is not available on the Installed tab). After this, Solitaire stopped showing up.

Screen shot of Ubuntu Software showing refresh icon in upper left corner.

By "refresh icon", I mean the circular arrow in the upper left corner.

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