Why Linux cleanup utilities are dangerous

I've written an article explaining why using system cleaning utilities, like dupeclean, Janitor, BleachBit, GConf Cleaner, and Sweeper, which ship as default programs with many popular Linux distributions, is dangerous and deterimental to system stability and integrity, especially for less experienced users and fresh Windows converts.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-cleaning.html


Cheers,
Mrk

 

Excellent article. I wholeheartedly agree.

 

Agree completely.

 

I agree that for a newbie these cleaning applications could be misused though I think your review was a bit pessimistic. I've used Bleachbit for a long, long time and have never experienced any adverse effects from its use. There's also Bleachbit Bonus which cleans old system logs that I also install. I use deborphan as well...again with no ill effects. I've never used any of the others mentioned. I always remove Computer Janitor on a fresh install of Ubuntu because I found it so ineffective.

Later...

Bob

 

good article mrk. I agree that, for a newbie, some of these programs can be dangerous. Gconf cleaner scared me enough that I would not touch it, deborphan showed some files that I knew I used (win32, gstreamer bad or ugly multiverse). I like and use bleachbit, but I have left newbie status behind and graduated to entry level novice. Also, I forgot the program available in kde3 that completely borked my system.

 

Nice article, add me to the list of people who agree.

Another thing to consider is that there is not really much to clean up on the common Linux distro - not only will very little space be saved (compared to current storage capacities), but also chances of causing any performances issues are very slim and more likely a direct fix/removal will be more effective.

I've also found that programs clean up after themselves well, files in tmp removed etc.

Cheers, Nick

 

On my 8 GB SSD, BleachBit is very useful. Never decreased performance, once increased it on Lucid (too much junk probably).

 

The only reason Linux cleanup utilities exist... Windows users.

Linux users write bash scripts or do it manually.

Add me to the Agree list.

 

Excellent article

highly recommended for anyone use linux should read it

among all i like Sweeper tool its look pretty safe to use as compare others you need to be more careful i agree