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user1397
April 8th, 2010, 06:08 PM
I have ubuntu 9.10 installed on my netbook, but I installed it with the minimal iso and then added a minimal gnome desktop without all the bloat of the default install.

Does anyone think this is pointless?

By that I mean, since I'm obviously into minimalism, shouldn't I be using some other distro instead of ubuntu as a base?

I don't know too much about the internal workings of ubuntu, but I hear that it is getting more and more bloated...

Revolutionary101
April 8th, 2010, 06:15 PM
I suggest you move to Lubuntu. Lubuntu is a version of Ubuntu but with the LXDE desktop enviroment. It is super lightweight, I usually get 150 MB of RAM usage at idol (Ubuntu gets around 250 MB for me).

If you do switch, do it after Lucid Lynx comes out on April 29th. That way you won't have to deal with upgrading right away.

stilling
April 8th, 2010, 06:20 PM
i believe that everyone has his choice for his system so if you think that you don`t really need other packages than that will be your personal choice that you like and you made that and the possibility to install them is very easy if you need one so keep it on bro :))

apt-get install RULZ :)

pastalavista
April 8th, 2010, 06:23 PM
I have ubuntu 9.10 installed on mu netbook, but I installed it with the minimal iso and then added a minimal gnome desktop without all the bloat of the default install.

Does anyone think this is pointless?

By that I mean, since I'm obviously into minimalism, should I be using ubuntu as a base and not some other distro?

I don't know too much about the internal workings of ubuntu, but I hear that it is getting more and more bloated...

Ubuntu is getting bloated. I'm running Lucid beta now and my older Acer notebook is running about 5 degrees hotter at idle than it did in Karmic.

What you're doing isn't pointless at all if you want to get the most bang out of your hardware. But it could be a little unwarranted in a newer, more powerful system that's used for recreation instead of work.

squilookle
April 8th, 2010, 06:30 PM
No, it is not pointless.

LXDE is fine, and it is light weight, but if you want GNOME and you can strip it down to make it lighter, then there is no reason why you shouldn't.

Until recently, I was using arch with GNOME and LXDE installed. Running GNOME, it idled at about 125mb. With LXDE on the same install, I could get it down to 80mb.

I had both installed but I always used GNOME unless I planned to use an app that used alot of memory: the reason for that was that I prefer GNOME: the desktop looks nicer, it handles removable media better, and other reasons like that.

Also, there is nothing wrong with using Ubuntu as a base for a minimal operating system. Granted: the default install is anything but minimal, but you can make pretty much anything you want out of it, and wanting a minimal desktop should not exclude you from the other benefits of Ubuntu, should as the great community, the package manager/repositories etc.

Enjoy!

RTrev
April 8th, 2010, 07:03 PM
There are two ways to go. Start with the full install, and trim things away, or start minimal and add things.

I now favor the former, because it's easier to remove one thing, see if it all still works, then remove another. When starting from bare bones, it's anyone's guess what needs to be added to obtain some desired functionality. (Speaking for myself, anyway, as a noob.)

And I second the suggestion to look into Lubuntu. It's all I run since I first tried the beta 1 of it. I changed some packages around, but pretty much any bloat seems to be gone.

Bachstelze
April 8th, 2010, 07:06 PM
By that I mean, since I'm obviously into minimalism, shouldn't I be using some other distro instead of ubuntu as a base?

No. Using Ubuntu or anything else at the base will give you the same thing, but with Ubuntu you will also get the awesome community and large repositories.

ubunterooster
April 8th, 2010, 07:07 PM
LUbuntu!!!!


Or U-lite for complete minimalism

Grez
April 8th, 2010, 08:05 PM
No. Using Ubuntu or anything else at the base will give you the same thing, but with Ubuntu you will also get the awesome community and large repositories.

I've always liked large repositories!

:shock:

diesch
April 8th, 2010, 09:18 PM
I have ubuntu 9.10 installed on my netbook, but I installed it with the minimal iso and then added a minimal gnome desktop without all the bloat of the default install.

Does anyone think this is pointless?

By that I mean, since I'm obviously into minimalism, shouldn't I be using some other distro instead of ubuntu as a base?


If I wre into minimalism I wouldn't use a desktop environment like Gnome but a simple window manager likeFvwm (http://fvwm.org/) (which I was using until a few years ago).



I don't know too much about the internal workings of ubuntu, but I hear that it is getting more and more bloated...

That depends on what you mean by bloated. As the Ubunu default installation has to fit an a CD it is smaler than some other distribution's default. But of course Ubuntu isn't into minimalism ans contains some esye candy and such that some poeple consider to be bloat.

Maybe Slackware (http://slackware.com/) fits your needs better

juancarlospaco
April 8th, 2010, 09:21 PM
IceWM is more lightweight than LXDE, lxde is nice too if works for you.

WM smaller than IceWM are very geeky for common users sometimes...

Irihapeti
April 8th, 2010, 11:18 PM
I had an old Toshiba Satellite A10 with 256 MB of RAM. I installed an Ubuntu 9.10 command-line system via alternate CD and then added Openbox and a few other things. It ran quite nicely, whereas with a full Ubuntu or Xubuntu install it was r-e-a-l-l-y struggling.

As far as I can tell - someone correct me please if I'm wrong - the basic underlying system is pretty much the same across most distros. It's the stuff added on top that makes the difference.

In any case, if you do a command-line install and then build up from that, you will learn a lot. That's worthwhile, whatever you finally end up doing.

themarker0
April 8th, 2010, 11:24 PM
And here i thought this thread was going to be about Fedora (Joking of course!)

Nah, i would do the same imho.

Paqman
April 8th, 2010, 11:31 PM
Does anyone think this is pointless?


Definitely not. Minimal Gnome installs can be surprisingly lightweight.