Why does python still work after being removed? On Debian 8 jessie I've removed python: perry@perry:~$ sudo apt-get remove python Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Package 'python2.7' is not installed, so not removed 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 35 not upgraded. But somehow I can still launch python from the terminal. perry@perry:~$ python Python 2.7.9 (default, Apr 29 2015, 18:34:06) [GCC 4.9.2] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> I haven't installed it from source or from any other place but apt. How is this possible and how can I remove python completely?

It turned out that the additional package python-minimal had python installed. One does then not only have to do:


sudo apt-get remove python


but also:


sudo apt-get remove python-minimal