OT: Why must Linux distros install the kitchen sink?

[Pete Peters]

Okay, good point. However, this reminds me of the "good old days" in which
everyone acquired (legally or not) all the software they could. It didn't
matter if you needed it or used it, it was "look at the applications I
have!"

How many word processors, text editors, etc, etc, does a person need? Fine,
include them w/ the distro, but do you have to install everything???  Seems
this just confuses the novice. Even you, Tim, whom I recognize as quite
experienced, state you  are still in the process of weeding out unnecessary
RPMs. This practice is common w/ Windoze; it should *NOT* be common for
Linux.

I'm a firm believer in running mean and lean. Probably comes from my 286/2MB
ram/30MB hard drive days. I sometimes had to remove an application before I
could install a new one for a college class. Heck, I could get MSDOS 6.2 &
Win3.x in under 3MB! Or how about Win95, Quicken, Office 95 and IE on 128MB?
I try never to do standard installs. Okay, enough of that.

With the increasing number of people trying to install on 2GB drives or
smaller, seems we should rethink what gets installed.

Just my two-cents....


Pete

-----Original Message-----
From: yellowdog-general-admin@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
[mailto:yellowdog-general-admin@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com]On Behalf
Of Timothy A. Seufert
Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 2:07 PM
To: yellowdog-general@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
Subject: RE: YDL 2.2 install fails at transfering packages


At 7:43 AM -0700 4/18/02, Pete Peters wrote:
>I guess we're gonna have to remove "software bloat" as a discussion point
>when debating Windoze vs Linux. Yeah, yeah, Linux is faster, more reliable,
>yadda-yadda, so save your comments and flames.
>
>This thread ends here.<---

No, it doesn't I'm afraid, and the reason why is fairly obvious.  A
typical Linux distribution comes with hundreds of apps, including a
full suite of development tools, a smorgasbord of text editors,
games, and just about anything else you can imagine.  Lots of people
never need to install any software other than what their Linux distro
came with.  The apps are what takes up all the space; the Linux
operating system itself is quite small.  My Linux gateway machine
uses under 500 megs -- and that much only because I never quite
finished the job of weeding out unnecessary RPMs.  (Plus I still
wanted to be able to compile software on it.)

Last I looked, Windoze includes a web browser and a handful of trivial apps.

--
Tim Seufert
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