this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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I recently installed chromium, created a new user and logged into a website. After my work was done, I removed chromium with "sudo dnf remove chromium".

A few days later I installed chromium again through dnf. My user account was still there and I was logged into the same site.

Is there a way to avoid this and uninstall an app along with all its user data?

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[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (15 children)

You can just delete the local profile directory. Depending on your setup, it could be anywhere. Just check in the browser's config info to find out where it is and delete that directory after you uninstall.

[–] maliciousonion@lemmy.ml -5 points 2 months ago (14 children)

Thanks. I wish there was a more straightforward process though.

Every other OS I've used purges all app data after uninstalling, why is Linux different?

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I think (?) it's generally true that the root user should never mess with users' files.

Imagine your home directory is shared across many systems on a network (my alma mater did this). It would be really bad if a sysadmin for alpha.university.edu removed a program, and suddenly your personal settings were removed from beta.university.edu


even though that computer still has the program.

This is one of the "UNIX on the desktop" issues


a lot is designed for a sysadmin/multiuser situation, and it has some gotchas when using it as a desktop machine (I'm used to/really appreciate the directory structure and settings management at this point, but it may take some getting used to).

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