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A user that want a minimal environment installs a modern complete and featurefull entire desktop environment and then complains that it's too bloated, at five only on Lemmy.
What is this, reddit nowadays? /S
Anyway, you should uninstall plasma and switch to any of the many more basic Linux GUI environment that better suit you needs, that the magic of Linux after all, nobody forces you to use what you don't like or don't approve on your own machine
How exactly is it bloatware though? Not a KDE user myself, just had a look at the wiki. Seems it's just a convenience utility to allow you to not have to enter the same things into multiple applications?
This is VERY different from pre-installed apps in your start menu that collect and sell info about you...
Yeah, thinking more about it, I don't think the term "bloatware" (as it is commonly used) applies here at all.
How do I completely disable it forever?
To answer your question: sudo systemctl mask <servicename>.service
The much more common disable just disables autostart; masking will point the service file at /dev/null, which makes it impossible to load or start the service, even when other services or apps (like the clock widget someone mentioned in the comments) request it.
If you're using the digital clock widget, that uses Akonadi, and will launch it on startup. It's used to (optionally) sync calendar events between compatible apps. There are also a handful of KDE PIM Applications that use it (think Kontact, KMail, KAddressBook, KOrganizer). If you want it disabled, you will need to stop using any Akonadi-enabled app. More information can be found at the KDE userbase for Akonadi. In particular, stop using any KDE PIM Application, as they cannot function without it, and disable calendar syncing from the digital clock. That will ensure the service is never started.
To fix the digital clock problem:
To ensure that Akonadi is not started, check that no applications require it at login. In particular, open the Plasma clock applet preferences, go to Calendar and uncheck Show events to prevent Plasma from requesting information from Akonadi and thus allowing it to start.
I do not use this widget. And even if I did, why do I have to have Akonadi enabled just to see a widget?
Sorry, I've revised my comment, so it's more complete now. As my comment states above, it's because by default, the digital clock widget (which is placed by default on the task bar–y'know, where it shows the time) has "Show events" enabled by default, which has a dependency on Akonadi. If you uncheck that (and keep in mind that you are using the digital clock widget unless you've specifically removed it), and make sure not to use any of the KDE PIM Applications stated above, then Akonadi will never start
You can try just tracking down Akonadi's executable and removing its executable mark or renaming it, which may, however, break other stuff (in particular, make sure you're not running kmail—it seems to be the most substantial program with a non-optional dependency). Or you can ditch KDE and move to a lighter DE that doesn't have this stuff (TDE, Mate, XFCE . . .)
There are two ways to spin up a Linux machine: you can either use a desktop-ready distribution that includes everything you need to use it right away (including some stuff you don't want), or you can start with the bare bones and build it up to usability. If you want to take the second philosophy to the extreme, Gentoo will let you turn off all optional features you don't want before they're even built.
akonadi is a dependency of some applications that are bundled in a default kde desktop, such as is installed using the kde-standard metapackage in debian.
these applications include kmail, korganizer, kaddressbook, and akregator. removing those four items from a default debian trixie kde install also removes any installed packages with 'akonadi' in the name.
You can disable it thru the command akonadictl. You can't remove it easily tho, as a lot of KDE components depend on it. One thing tho is you can make sure it pulls SQLite instead of MySQL or PostgreSQL as its dependency.
If you want the most minimal OS possible, you can ditch Plasma and just use a Window Manager, but I wouldn't reccomend it if you are a beginner
I definitely broke some apps that needed it to function when I tried removing it once
Have you literally purged it out of the system? I've just disabled it from starting. Though, I may have broken Kontact or something. Never opened these.
Kontact is a buggy mess.
Once, Gnome Geoclue service seemed unnecessary and suspicious to me.
Disable it by going to "system services" and disabling it
Is it in system settings? I couldn't find it there
It's not. look up "services" in your app launcher
Nothing relevant shows up. Had to go to config files.
really? usually KDE based distros have it preinstalled, in Kubuntu for example there's literally an app called "system services" or "background services" where you can do this. but i'm glad you figured it out
I actually have "background services", but again, haven't found Akonadi mentions there. Probably it was called some other way, and probably it was not present there. Anyway, thanks, this app will be useful with other tasks later.
oh, huh. Maybe it's a SystemD service then, which would be disableable with sudo systemctrl disable akonadi
It doesn't sound like you understand what personal information is. It includes things like contacts, calendar, and emails.
This back end service exists because, in the past, programs were all doing their own thing, but now KDE provides that information as a service. With a standard API. So you can have two programs installed that manage your contacts, and they're both using the same list of contacts. Same with your calendar. Back in the day, if you used two different programs to store contacts, you would have two databases of contacts.
Calling that bloatware is just stupid. It's literally a core service that a useful operating system should provide.
In addition, learn how to use a search engine instead of posting in the forum like this. It was trivial to find out how to disable it permanently. Trivial! Asking us to do your work for you and then tacking on a "conversation starter" at the end doesn't make your post any more palatable.
Here's your answer:
Desktop user issues 😂