How can I uninstall ktuberling _without_ uninstalling KDE? (and kde-amusments and kdegames as well...) in Debian Sarge.
Using KPackage or Synaptic, it wants to remove all that to get rid of ktuberling... KDE depends on ktuberling?

I have ktuberling installed on my 5yr old daughters computer, but I don't really have much need of it on my laptop...

and plain old comand line apt-get I'm scared to try because at the moment I don't have a net connection to restore KDE if I take it off accidentally ;o)

The answer to this I would also like to apply to removing various other programs that I want to remove because I don't use them, but aren't (or shouldn't be) depended on. ktuberling is just a specific example...

Well, I'm using fedora and yum, but the principle is the same. You can remove a package wth the -uninstall option (or a like option in apt-get). It removes the package and all depencencies. It should ask a confirmation before going ahead, so you should not have to fear that you'll remove everything.

You can't remove individual packages which were installed as part of a metapackage to my knowledge.

Perhaps try to remove the dummy metapackage and then remove an individual package?

Always add the "-s" switch to "apt-get remove" to simulate the process first. Also see "man apt-get".