How to uninstall software on Ubuntu Linux

New to Ubuntu Linux? Unsure of how to uninstall software on the operating system? We’re here to help! Follow along as we teach you how to uninstall software on Ubuntu easily!

Uninstall software with Ubuntu Software Center

There are many different ways to uninstall software on Ubuntu Linux, but the single best way to go about it is with the Ubuntu Software Center. Everything is organized, and easy to understand. If you’re looking to get rid of some pre-installed applications on your Ubuntu PC or uninstalling ones you set up yourself, here’s how to go about it.

Note: if you’re new to Ubuntu and the Linux platform, we highly recommend using Ubuntu Software Center to uninstall programs on your Linux PC as it allows users to uninstall Ubuntu programs, Flatpak apps, and Snap packages all in the same place very quickly.

To uninstall a program through the software center on Ubuntu, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Press the Windows key on your keyboard, search for “Ubuntu Software Center” in the search box, and open the program with the orange tote-bag icon. Keep in mind that when launching this app, the start-up may not be instant. Be patient during the startup process.

Step 2: After the Ubuntu Software Center application finishes going through its startup process, locate the “Installed” button at the top of the screen and click on it to load the section of Ubuntu Software Center that categorizes applications installed on the system.

Step 3: Scroll through the “Installed” list and click the “remove” button to start the uninstall process.

Step 4: When you click “remove” next to an app in the “Installed” list in Software Center, a password box will appear. Enter your user’s password and to uninstall from Ubuntu fully. Repeat this process to remove as many applications as you’d like from your Ubuntu PC.

Uninstall software in the terminal

The Ubuntu Software Center is an excellent tool, but the user interface isn’t for everyone. If you prefer to do things via the command-line, you’ll be happy to know that it’s easy to uninstall software efficiently with the Apt package manager. Here’s how it works.

Press the Windows key on your keyboard, search for “Terminal” in the search box and launch it. Then, follow the instructions below to learn how to uninstall Flatpaks, Snap packages, and native Ubuntu applications with the command-line interface in the terminal.

Remove native Ubuntu programs via the terminal

Ubuntu is Debian based, so the majority of the programs you will install on it are “native,” aka Debian packages found in the Ubuntu software sources. To uninstall any of these native programs, you’ll need to execute Ubuntu’s Apt package manager in the following way:

sudo apt remove programname

Can’t figure out what the package name is? Try searching for it first

apt search programname

Then, when you’ve figured out the package name, you can run the apt remove command outlined at the start of this section of the article.

Remove Snap packages on Ubuntu via the terminal

Due to how popular Snap packages are with Ubuntu users, it’s a good idea to go over how to remove Snap packages on Ubuntu Linux.

To start, you’ll need to figure out the name of the Snap you want to remove. Locating running snaps is done with the snap list command.

snap list

Look through the list for the program you’re looking to uninstall. Then, when you’ve found it, uninstall it from Ubuntu with:

sudo snap remove programname

Remove Flatpaks on Ubuntu via the terminal

While Flatpak isn’t super popular with every Ubuntu user out there (mainly because of Snap), there are many users on Ubuntu Linux who install and use Flatpaks. For this reason, we’re going to go over how to uninstall Flatpaks in the terminal. To start, go to the terminal and run the flatpak list command to view the currently installed Flatpak apps.

flatpak list

Look through the list and find the name of the Flatpak app you want to remove from Ubuntu. Once you’ve found it, take the name of the package and then use flatpak uninstall to remove it from the system.

sudo flatpak uninstall programname

Uninstall software on Kubuntu with KDE Discover

Kubuntu is a flavor of Ubuntu that does not use Ubuntu software center. Instead, it uses KDE’s Discover application, and users are encouraged to install/uninstall programs with it.

KDE isn’t the primary desktop environment that Ubuntu users use, though it does have a user base, so it’s still important to cover. To uninstall a program in Discover, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Press the Windows key on the keyboard to launch the KDE app launcher. Then, search for “Discover” and open it.

Step 2: Look to the bottom-left corner of Discover for “Installed” and click on it to get to the list of installed programs on your system.