But there is absolutely no standard for those things and no guarantee that an uninstall works. Part of the purpose of distro package management is to correct such errors by individual developers. The distro's also keep track of security risks and other problems -- they are contributing a very significant oversight layer.
Anyway, I consider this:
apt-cache search some_package
apt-get install package
easier than:
- finding a website
- downloading a package
- playing with some wonky GUI interface that may be different each time.
So you have skipped a few steps that have to occur before you get to the apparently easy point and click, which you can save yourself all that trouble with one quick powerful command. Or two. Especially if you are working over a network via ssh, in which case you get no GUI.
Then, subsequent to all that, you can use the standard interface offered the package manager (by which I mean, yum or apt) to query stuff like what files a package installed, where they are located, etc.
yum:
repoquery --list package
apt:
dpkg-query -L package
Ba-boom, done. And like I said, one of those two works on EVERY linux system. Any and all distros.
Seriously: learn to love the command line. You will thank yourself for it later. You're a programmer, that tish shouldn't scare you. Also it's a great way to understand the fundamental elements of the system. You're a programmer: you should do that.