Of all the product applications considered “must-haves” for a PC, CCleaner is presumably a standout amongst the most well-known. Lightweight yet capable, it’s a framework utility that cleans a wide range of garbage (e.g. brief documents, invalid registry sections) from your PC, in this manner guaranteeing that it continues working the way it should, sans any issues. Not just that, it additionally does bunches of other cool stuff, including everything from cleansing browsing history to uninstalling programs. In any case, as unfathomable as it seems to be, CCleaner is accessible for Windows and OS X, in this way forgetting Linux clients in the driving rain.

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In any case, don’t you stress people. There are many applications/solutions that give (pretty much) an indistinguishable usefulness from CCleaner, accessible for Linux. Can’t hold your dynamism? Here’s a posting of the best CCleaner choices for Linux.

1. BleachBit

bleachbit

bleachbit

Utterly simple to use, BleachBit makes quick work of getting your Linux PC rid of unwanted stuff. From thumbnail cache and broken desktop files, to debug logs and temporary files, this open-source CCleaner alternative can clean up just about everything. Just select the junk files and content you want gone, and hit the Clean button. And that’s nothing. BleachBit supports close to 100 applications (including browsers, office suites, media players, and much more) whose leftovers it can clean up. In addition, it includes the functionality to shred files and wipe free disk space, thus almost exactly mirroring the feature set that CCleaner provides.

And even if you happen to use Windows along with Linux, BleachBit has you covered, as it’s available for Windows as well. And we mention that it was used by internationally renowned security technologist Bruce Schneier, while working with the secret documents provided by Edward Snowden?

Install in Ubuntu & Derivatives:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:n-muench/programs-ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install bleachbit

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2. Ubuntu Tweak Tool

ubuntutweaktool

ubuntu tweak tool

If your Linux distro of choice is Ubuntu (or anything else based on it), Ubuntu Tweak Tool is something you should definitely use. It’s a utility that makes using and configuring Ubuntu a lot easier, and includes options for tweaking advanced settings, quickly updating apps, and much more. But one of its most useful components is the Janitor sub-module, which makes removing unwanted stuff like broken/old packages, config files, cache etc., a matter of a few clicks. It can be accessed via its own tab, and lets you delete space hogging junk, either selectively, or all at once.

In summation, Ubuntu Tweak Tool (or more specifically, its Janitor sub-module) can be considered as a bare-bones CCleaner alternative for Linux. That being said, it doesn’t really provide any extra functionality (e.g. program uninstallation, file shredding).

Install in Ubuntu & Derivatives:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

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3. Sweeper

sweeper

sweeper

Essentially, Sweeper is a part of the KDE utilities suite, and an extremely simple system cleaner utility. Although the functionality provided by Sweeper is extremely minimal (and by no means comparable to what CCleaner provides), it can come in handy for those who just want to delete basic junk files occasionally. Sweeper can clean web-browsing related data (e.g. browsing history, cache, cookies), as well as general files like clipboard contents, recently accessed documents, and thumbnail cache. That’s pretty much all there’s to it.

However, Sweeper’s working is clunky, and during our testing, it only worked half of the time. So that’s something to be kept in mind.

Install in Ubuntu & Derivatives:

sudo apt-get install sweeper

sudo apt-get update

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4. FSLint

fslint

fslint

Although FSLint seems confusing at first, once you get a hang of it, things get easy. FSLint is basically a duplicate file finder application, but it can also be used to delete (some) unwanted and junk files, thus making it a (sort of) CCleaner alternative for Linux.

In addition to duplicate files, FSLint can also find temp files, bad IDs, empty directories, and things like that. You can even manually specify the locations to be searched. Once the results are displayed, all you have to do is select the unwanted/duplicate files you want gone, and hit Delete.

Install in Ubuntu & Derivatives:

sudo apt-get install fslint

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Ready to clean up your Linux machine?

The somewhat limited availability of popular software applications on Linux has always been an issue, especially for new users. However, things are much better now than they used to be, as seen evinced by the above discussion of CCleaner alternatives. Want a powerful disk cleaning utility that almost mirrors CCleaner in terms of feature set? Go for Bleach Bit. Would rather prefer something simpler? Try Sweeper.

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