If you are using an OS based on the Synaptic Package Manager, you must have noticed by now that when trying to install a new package through Synaptic, it draws in miscellaneous packages that are needed for the program to work. These packages are called dependencies.

Synaptic is a graphical user interface (GUI) for managing software packages on Debian-based distributions.

Ever forget what you had installed and find yourself at a fresh ubuntu install thinking to yourself... Damn now I gotta open up synaptic and search for everything I had... Well fortunately you dont need to do that. With this easy howto you can also restore all your packages that were installed by simply creating a package list and uninstalling every application installed after the list was made.

Debian (.deb) packages are the packages that are used in Ubuntu. You can install any .deb package in your system. .deb files can generally be installed from your file manager (Nautilus) merely by clicking on them,

First we need to install the necessary Ubuntu packages. This can be done with the Synaptic Package Manager (search for aircrack-ng and kismet) or using the Terminal.

The installation instructions in most free software reviews aren't enough. If you decide a package sucks, how do you get rid of it? If a package rocks, how do you upgrade it? GNU Stow, a package manager for packages you compile and install yourself, provides an easy answer to both questions.

When a package is uninstalled, its configuration files are left on the system, in case you’ll want to install it again. Purging a package gets rid of these configuration files.

Appnr is a web-based directory for Ubuntu packages (including the official repositories and third-party packages from Medibuntu, Google, and the Canonical Partner repository). You can use it to browse and install packages directly from your browser. It's like Synaptic for your browser.

The last time I followed a distribution’s suggestion to remove some packages that were no longer needed, I completely hosed the system. Could not use it afterwards. Though the machine was a test machine, the experience thought me to always let sleeping dogs lie.