Which default programs can be safely uninstalled?

Which programs installed by default in Ubuntu are generally regarded as safe to uninstall?

I'm mostly thinking of things like social networking, E-mail, you know. Bonus stuff.

You can uninstall anything you want. At work we even delete gdm and anything GUI related but that is because we have a command line fetish.

Open up Ubuntu Software Center and have a look at the list that shows installed.

Anything in here, except for uncategorized and themes and tweaks since these might contain some software you do want to keep, should be safe for removal and should be standalone packages. This includes firefox, thunderbird, totem, libreoffice. The list goes on and on so you will not get a perfect answer to your question.

If what you mean is "safe to uninstall and still keep the default desktop functionality" I think you need to be very careful about this, as it is entirely possible to do some real damage when you start uninstalling programs from the standard install.

I am not as familiar with the software center, so I am not as sure that all the entries in there are safe to uninstall. If that is the case of course, then it is a commendable feature of the software center.

What I would recommend (possibly in addition to some of the other recommendations) is to install the synaptic package manager as it gives you more direct information about what will happen. Search for the package that you want to uninstall. When you mark it for un-installation it will tell you which other programs will also be uninstalled. Have a close look at this list and make very sure that it only contains items related to the software you want to remove and make sure that it does not contain anything system related (e.g. stuff with gnome in the name and a bunch of other stuff). In general especially the last part can be difficult to determine, so be careful.

I would have to say any program on the Ubuntu Software Center (USC) is safe to uninstall. Of course you must use your judgment as well. If this is not what you are looking for, then please expand your question, explaining your idea of safe.