I'm using Kubuntu 7.04 using the Adept PM. When I update the package repositories, I'm not actually installing anything, right?

From what I've read, Adept or Synaptic package managers are just graphical front ends for apt and apt is an advanced front-end for dpkg. What then is dpkg?

Do I even need Adept? Could I remove it and just use a terminal based updater and installer? Thanks.

Correct.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dpkg

Why remove it, just go ahead and use the terminal.

Just updating the repositories does not actually install anything, you have to accept the updates to install them. I use ubuntu. In ubuntu you can just click system > administration > update manager to check for and install updates. I assume kubuntu has that also. Synaptic/Adept are gui front ends for apt-get. To update repositories from terminal do "sudo apt-get update". To check for updates and choose to install them (or not) do "sudo apt-get upgrade". I would not uninstall adept, but you can use apt-get to install/uninstall anything instead of synaptic/adept.
See these:
http://www.archive.org/details/Insta...pdates_Kubuntu
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installingsoftware
and if you really want to learn how to use apt from terminal (recommended) read the apt how to:
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/de...l/ch-dpkg.html
APT is very versatile, more so than synaptic.