Can I remove these packages after installation?

Question

Hi,
I checked packages installed on my laptop. The followings are explicitly installed but I do not know whether they are useful to me. So I am wondering whether I can remove them without affecting my work. Can anyone give me some advices?
xfsprogs 2.10.1-1
mlocate 0.21-1
mdadm 2.6.7-1
mailx 8.1.1-5
lvm2 2.02.43-1
lzo2 2.02-3
licenses 2.4-1
jfsutils 1.1.13-1
gettext 0.17-2
dmapi 2.2.8-3
dash 0.5.4-4
cpio 2.9-3
cryptsetup 1.0.6-2

Answer 1

cpio might me needed to update the kernel, at least the name sounds familiar. I would definitely remove mlocate or at least disable the cron job, so far the only use I have for it is to slowdown my system (a lot).
xfsprogs: not needed if you don't use xfs file systems
mlocate: I dont like, chmod -x on the cron job, didn't remove it though
mdadm: no idea of what it does
mailx: no idea of what it does
lvm2: not needed if you don't use lvm volumes
lzo2: I think is a compression/decompression utility, I would keep it
licenses: no idea of what it does
jfsutils: not needed if you don't use jfs file systems
gettext: no idea of what it does
dmapi: no idea of what it does
dash: no idea of what it does
cpio: I believe it is needed to update the kernel
cryptsetup: no idea of what it does
When in doubt, don't remove things because they might be needed later :d