Towards a Debian for minimalists
Please not the subject line is
"Towards a Debian for minimalists"
*NOT*
"Towards a minimalist Debian"
The distinction, as I see it, revolves around the difference
between one's "mindset" as distinct from one's "goals"
I started similar threads in 2014.
As long as embedded systems were inherently resource constrained
I found some common goals in the Embedian(sp??) Project. This
group seems to be the closest match to my mindset.
I'm retired, was introduced to computers as an E.E. student in
the 60's, though have written programs I'm a component level
hardware guy rather than a programmer.
Several years ago I became terminally annoyed with Microsoft's
view that they knew more about an individual's needs than the
individual. Started investigating Linux. I was pointed to Ubuntu
but found it unsatisfactory as Cannonical seems to have same
target audience as Microsoft.
"Linux from Scratch" and Slackware have good points but I needed
something width a wider user base. Debian seems to be best
overall fit for sometimes conflicting goals.
My definitions include:
1. Development and target systems shall be i386 only.
2. The operative metric for "minimal" will be minimize package
count for currently
desired functionality.
This focuses on current defined needs over potential future
goals.
Which leads to recognizing my "end product" might be a
flexible alternative to
Debian's installer, rather than a Debian Blend (pure or
otherwise).
As an example of where I'm headed I've done two Squeeze instals
[enough has changed with Jessie that I've not accomplished
comparisons yet ;]
Counting all applications entries under "Applications" there are:
11 entries for my minimal Squeeze install [1.5 GB on disk]
67 entries for a default Squeeze install [3.0 GB on disk]
I have to investigate the current crop of metapackages used by
the installer and write a coherent description of my target audience.
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