Linux

How exactly is it bloatware though? Not a KDE user myself, just had a look at the wiki. Seems it's just a convenience utility to allow you to not have to enter the same things into multiple applications?

This is VERY different from pre-installed apps in your start menu that collect and sell info about you...

Yeah, thinking more about it, I don't think the term "bloatware" (as it is commonly used) applies here at all.

How do I completely disable it forever?

To answer your question: sudo systemctl mask <servicename>.service

The much more common disable just disables autostart; masking will point the service file at /dev/null, which makes it impossible to load or start the service, even when other services or apps (like the clock widget someone mentioned in the comments) request it.

A user that want a minimal environment installs a modern complete and featurefull entire desktop environment and then complains that it's too bloated, at five only on Lemmy.

What is this, reddit nowadays? /S

Anyway, you should uninstall plasma and switch to any of the many more basic Linux GUI environment that better suit you needs, that the magic of Linux after all, nobody forces you to use what you don't like or don't approve on your own machine

You can disable it thru the command akonadictl. You can't remove it easily tho, as a lot of KDE components depend on it. One thing tho is you can make sure it pulls SQLite instead of MySQL or PostgreSQL as its dependency.

If you're using the digital clock widget, that uses Akonadi, and will launch it on startup. It's used to (optionally) sync calendar events between compatible apps. There are also a handful of KDE PIM Applications that use it (think Kontact, KMail, KAddressBook, KOrganizer). If you want it disabled, you will need to stop using any Akonadi-enabled app. More information can be found at the KDE userbase for Akonadi. In particular, stop using any KDE PIM Application, as they cannot function without it, and disable calendar syncing from the digital clock. That will ensure the service is never started.

To fix the digital clock problem:

To ensure that Akonadi is not started, check that no applications require it at login. In particular, open the Plasma clock applet preferences, go to Calendar and uncheck Show events to prevent Plasma from requesting information from Akonadi and thus allowing it to start.

akonadi is a dependency of some applications that are bundled in a default kde desktop, such as is installed using the kde-standard metapackage in debian.

these applications include kmail, korganizer, kaddressbook, and akregator. removing those four items from a default debian trixie kde install also removes any installed packages with 'akonadi' in the name.

I definitely broke some apps that needed it to function when I tried removing it once

You can try just tracking down Akonadi's executable and removing its executable mark or renaming it, which may, however, break other stuff (in particular, make sure you're not running kmail—it seems to be the most substantial program with a non-optional dependency). Or you can ditch KDE and move to a lighter DE that doesn't have this stuff (TDE, Mate, XFCE . . .)

There are two ways to spin up a Linux machine: you can either use a desktop-ready distribution that includes everything you need to use it right away (including some stuff you don't want), or you can start with the bare bones and build it up to usability. If you want to take the second philosophy to the extreme, Gentoo will let you turn off all optional features you don't want before they're even built.

If you want the most minimal OS possible, you can ditch Plasma and just use a Window Manager, but I wouldn't reccomend it if you are a beginner

OP, even if I personally don't entirely agree with your sentiment. I am fully aware it is a legit one and I'm actually even sympathetic to the idea.

As others have already provided solutions to your problem, I just wanted to share https://suckless.org/philosophy/ with you. I'm pretty sure this is either were you are right now, or the logical conclusion of your trajectory.

Have you ever met something else in Linux or it’s ecosystem, that appeared to be bloatware to you (and how did you disable it)?

Perhaps through sheer luck^[I started on Fedora Kinoite years ago. But due to some bug at the time, the system wasn't fully initalized. When I eventually rebased to Silverblue, I ended up with a very minimal install. Sure, it still contained stuff we might regard bloat, but it was the last thing on my mind back then.] the Linux systems I've used have always been pretty minimal.

As bloat often comes with additional attack surface, the security-sensitive will be implored to go with minimalism anyways. As such, my current distro of choice; namely secureblue, is actively engaged with debloating the system. Recently, it has even started working on 'debloating' the kernel. Like, why should my system autoload parts of the kernel used to drive all sorts of old and niche hardware; like remote controls etc?

Still, there are stuff that I'm not using, but I'm too lazy to hunt them down 😅.

Once, Gnome Geoclue service seemed unnecessary and suspicious to me.

Disable it by going to "system services" and disabling it

Desktop user issues 😂