kernel size (was: Re: when and why did python(-minimal) become essential?)

[Miles Bader <miles.bader@necel.com>]

Adam Borowski <kilobyte@mimuw.edu.pl> writes:
> Extra bloat doesn't noticeably hurt Ubuntu because Ubuntu doesn't try
> to support memory sticks, old hardware, embedded things or farms of
> tiny virtual machines; Debian does.  No one cares about wasting some
> memory and disk space on a modern desktop.

Speaking of which, I recently tried to install a standard debian kernel
on my home machine (I normally build my own kernels), and was ultimately
defeated because that machine has a fairly small root partition, and the
linux-image package required _45 MB_ of disk space!

Does the installed kernel realllly need 45 MB...?

Granted, it's been a while, but I used to use standard debian kernels on
this machine in the 2.4 days, and don't remember any bloat problems
quite this bad.

[The exact package was linux-image-2.6.15-1-686 2.6.15-2]

-Miles
-- 
The car has become... an article of dress without which we feel uncertain,
unclad, and incomplete.  [Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964]