CCleaner for Linux: The 3 best alternatives

CCleaner is one of the most popular tools for Windows. If you switch to Linux, you will look in vain for it. But there is a reason for this: Linux is structured differently than Windows, which is why a program like CCleaner is not really necessary. You can find out why this is the case and what alternatives there are in this article.

CCleaner alternative for Linux - does that make sense?

• CCleaner cleans the registry files, which is controversial even among Windows users. Under Linux this makes even less sense, since there is no registry in this sense.
• The CCleaner is useful for cleaning up the temporary files. You do not need to hope for a noticeable performance boost.
• The CCleaner also helps to find and delete cookies. This could also be done via the browser, but is more convenient to do with the free tool.
• These and similar tasks can also be done on a Linux system. Therefore, a cleaning tool has its right to exist, but is in no way necessary. Below we briefly present three CCleaner alternatives.

CCleaner alternatives for Linux - the 3 best programs

• BleachBit: The system cleanup tool is available on GNOME, KDE and Xfce. It cleans up a large number of temporary files under Linux and performs "apt-get autoclean" and "autoremove", but also deletes other data garbage and browser data. To do this, select the desired points, have them analyzed and then confirm the deletion. The program can be installed from the official package sources with "apt-get install bleachbit" or "aptitude install bleachbit". By the way: BleachBit is also available for Windows.
• deborphan / gtkorphan: This lean system tool is available for Debian-based Linux distributions and mainly searches for and deletes orphaned packages. Here, too, you can select and delete each element individually. gtkorphan is functionally the same as deborphan, but offers a graphical interface. Under most distributions you can also install the CCleaner alternative from the supplied repositories: "apt-get install gtkorphan" or "apt-get install deborphan" (or aptitude).
• Sweeper: This system cleaner is KDE-exclusive and is usually preinstalled in this environment and can be found in the application list. Under Kubuntu you install the tool via "apt-get install sweeper" (or aptitude). This CCleaner alternative focuses on unused remnants of KDE applications and the desktop environment plasma.