I rarely compile source code myself and mostly install stuff using apt-get.  So, can I safely uninstall all those *-dev files?  Or are some apps reliant on them?
Can I remove *-dev packages if I'm not compiling apps from source code?
debian;package management;development
Yes you should be safe to remove any *-dev packages, since these are typically the header files needed when compiling against a give packaged library. Remember you can always list the contents of a given package using dpkg -L <pkg> if you have any doubts as to what's inside it.Example$ dpkg -L libgdbm-dev | head -10/./usr/usr/include/usr/include/dbm.h/usr/include/gdbm.h/usr/include/gdbm-ndbm.h/usr/lib/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgdbm.a/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgdbm_compat.a