Remove KDE from 'Desktop' Install

Hi,

During the install of Sarge, instead of selecting individual packages, I selected "Desktop". This installed X and GNOME, which are what I want, but also KDE. So, I want to remove all of KDE and all the programs that come with it, like Kate and Konsole. I can do this using aptitude, but is there a single apt-get command that would work, or could I choose only GNOME during install, easily?

I was thinking something like 'apt-get remove k*' but of course that may remove non-KDE packages. Is there one library that I can remove that would remove all of KDE and its programs?

And just as an aside, why doesn't the Debian installer prompt the user to choose? I understand that KDE and GNOME should be equally represented, but why install both?

Here's something that might help:

$ apt-get --version
apt 0.5.28.6 for linux i386 compiled on Mar 22 2005 07:17:03
...

Thanks!

why doesn't the Debian installer prompt the user to choose? I understand that KDE and GNOME should be equally represented, but why install both?

It's just simpler this way. There is a large group of inexperienced newbies who want an "automatic" installer with as little interaction (=questions & choices) as possible. Then there are the control freaks who like to manually set every aspect of their system already during the installation. The new Debian-Installer tries to serve these both groups, and anyone in-between, by being simultaneously smartly designed and interactive. I think it does a good job but, of course, you can never satisfy everyone.

could I choose only GNOME during install, easily?

Now, if you are familiar with using aptitude, you can choose NOT to choose the "Desktop Environment" from the task list, and instruct aptitude to install individual packages and meta-packages (such as "gnome" or "gnome-core") instead. In fact, many experienced Debian users just use the installer to install the base system, then tweak it to their liking, and install the rest of the packages they need afterwards via apt-get or aptitude.

You could "apt-get remove kdm". That should toast KDE and all packages that depend on it.

I'm not going to test it for you, of course. I like my KDE.