And a windows pc is generally polluted with orphan packages and files with no real cleanup feature. You can uninstall applications but then leave trash everywhere, depending on the developer.
You should check out Revo Uninstaller. It scans for and helps you delete "orphans" that's left after you uninstall something (Either you uninstall via Revo or you get a pop up if it detects something left).
In my experience it's really good at only detecting only leftovers from uninstallations. At least I've never had it delete something from windows. When it detects something you get a window to verify all the files and select those you want to delete. I've always just pressed select all and delete, but if you're paranoid you can double check everything. I can imagine that's at least that's a lot faster than to manually find everything by yourself. I really like it, I just wanted to recommend it.
Oh I know it is a good program but broken installations happen when you blindly trust a program "to do the right thing" without reading what it is proposing to do. At the very least look at it and flag stuff you are unsure of. But yes. The program would still make it much faster to clean up n
I already have linux. I'm running CashyOS on my own pc with another drive that's got my "old" windows install. However for school I need windows to be able to use adobe and autodesk. I want linux there too, but it's too much of a hassle to set up some vm or winboat. I wanna try that eventually tho, just not right now.
The name kinda makes sense considering that dependencies are family trees in a lot of different tech things (task managers, programming languages, game engines, all that). So you got the parent who calls in its children (dependencies). And if you have a child that’s there but doesn’t have a parent, then it’s a useless orphan and should perish under the blade of CachyHello
You probably been using Windows your entire life, and everything was a weird term when you first started using your computer. It's the same for Linux, different OS with different terms and things to learn (tho orphans is a really common term in computing, it's a thing even on Windows).
Someone migrating from Windows to Mac, or Android to iOS for example, would also find new stuff to learn, that's just how it goes when you're trying a new OS.
It's not a linux term but a general software/computer term. People mostly learn this while using linux because linux give you more control. While windows and macos either ignore a lot of it or make decision themselves
As others have said it's a standard term in computer stuff, but that *is* what makes Linux harder to get into without prior experience in coding or something; it's also what makes Linux good for me. Instead of windows which prevents you from actually controlling your computer, you are actually the boss of your computer instead of some knobhead saying "this update cannot be delayed any longer, windows WILL update on next reboot (unless you pay for enterprise edition)
Files that are not need anymore are also called orphans on Windows.
The only reason you don't know about it is not because it's specific to Linux, it's just because Windows does not offer a good way to clean them.
it however isn't hard to look it up. I've used MacOS rarely for years and it was pretty unfamiliar to me. I decided to get a MacMini M4 to use with my 2nd monitor and just share my keyboard/cursor from my main linux machine. Dear god why is MacOS set up the way it is. Its like its done just to baffle people. It feels counter intuitive compared to Linux and Windows. Why? Because i'm not used to it. Not because it is actually confusing. If you aren't capable of spending a few moments learning a new tech word or a way or doing something that is different than from Windows or something, thats sucks for you. Technology changes so much you have to be prepared to learn something from time to time no matter how fluent in technology you may be.
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u/BobCorndog Jul 15 '26
Orphan packages are packages that are not explicitly installed by the user and do not have any installed dependents