Debian – Why does python still work after being removed

aptdebianpython

On Debian 8 jessie I've removed python:

perry@perry:~$ sudo apt-get remove python
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package 'python2.7' is not installed, so not removed
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 35 not upgraded.

But somehow I can still launch python from the terminal.

perry@perry:~$ python
Python 2.7.9 (default, Apr 29 2015, 18:34:06) 
[GCC 4.9.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

I haven't installed it from source or from any other place but apt. How is this possible and how can I remove python completely?

Best Answer

It turned out that the additional package python-minimal had python installed. One does then not only have to do:

sudo apt-get remove python

but also:

sudo apt-get remove python-minimal
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