[mdlug] Are Linux Distros Too Bloated?

[Robert James Fulner]

I think I really matters what you mean, but probably yes, particularly if your focus is on desktop distributions aimed at end users.

I'm pretty sure this has been a conscious decision by the community for a couple reasons. Most new desktop users will likely have fairly recent hardware that has less concern for bloat. Even a bloated Ubuntu is going to use fewer resources than a bloated Windows 11. The more packages they can include in this default distro build the less support for "hey how do I install xyz" from complete newbs and the less blog posts we get of "Linux sucks because it can't so ABC" from people who's followers think their smart.

I was surprised to learn recently that one of my friends had been using Linux Mint as his sole OS for over a year and still didn't know how to install programs. He wasn't concerned nectar everything he actually needed was already available. When I told him  'the same way you install apps on your Android phone" he jokingly said "just use the play store..." and he was flabbergasted when I showed him yes, it's just called software manager.

For those of us who have been using Linux for a long time we probably don't need to be using Ubuntu anymore.

For years now I've been using Debian based of their netinstall image so that it only installs the packages I actually need.

I've been meaning to try Gentoo for sometime to see how much improvement I get by complying directly for my machine thereby eliminating overhead, but I've never got around to it.

I think that could be an interesting meeting topic in the future.


Sent from my Smartphone please dismiss no-so-smart-typos