Removing Open Office Without Removing the Ubuntu Desktop?

[Stephen Ryan]

On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 17:35:46 +0100 (CET), Brian Durant
<linuxnewbiedk at yahoo.dk> wrote:
> I have installed StarOffice 7 and would like to remove
> Open Office as the two don't work together. I get the
> following message when I start up OO: "Either another
> instance of Open Office is installed or your
> preferences are locked...inconsistencies, yada, yada,
> yada." When I try to remove Open Office, Ubuntu
> Desktop goes too. When I try to reinstall Ubuntu
> Desktop, I have to install Open Office as well. Any
> ideas how I can keep Ubuntu Desktop but get rid of OO?

"Ubuntu Desktop" is a metapackage, designed to make installation and
upgrades easier.  You can safely remove it without affecting the
functioning of your system in any way.

Alternatively, you could investigate the "equivs" package, which is a
bit more work than just letting the metapackage go, but is designed
for this circumstance; the idea is that equivs lets you tell the
packaging system that you have installed a functional equivalent for
OO by another means, and it should stop bothering you about it.  Once
you have the equivs-generated dummy OO package installed, you can
reinstall the ubuntu desktop package.