Minimal option for Solus install?

dbarron

Yeah, especially when the more common attitude (I think) would be 'But why doesn't it have XYZ app installed' more than 'Oh my god, it has OpenOffice, an email client, a browser, why would anyone want all that ?'
The argument (which make it a non-argument to me) is that it's easy to install OR remove software.

nube

I am for a minimal install option. If that can't be offered, ok, I won't uninstall Solus in a huff.
I believe that the new user would typically be more successful with installing software to build system of choice.
I know from trying to pare down extras from a major distro, I did manage to " break" other program I wanted to use, and it took a while to fix. Solus is certainly not bloated compared to some distros, but an os that allows me to add exactly the software i want as opposed to removing unwanted would get my vote. Solus is my samba server/gnome keybind trainer/audio editor/ interwebs machine. I will be using Bodhi to update my audio server machine, as bodhi does offer a very minimal install option.

sangheeta

nube I believe that the new user would typically be more successful with installing software to build system of choice.

It is not the Solus philosophy at all, it's arch or something else. Solus is for users, all the majority of users need is there, Out Of The Box. Simple and clean.
Good bye "trillion packages" manager I don't know what to do with. 😂

Justin

What is the main concern for people having things pre-installed? Is it disk space? Menu entries?

nube

Justin I think its mostly choice, not disk space or menu entries.

elfprince

Justin , in my case disk space is a factor. My NUC came with a 55G SSD, and already 70% is full. I am curious how much space would a 'bare' Solus install take, considering that I hardly added any extra software. I don't consider Solus a 'bloated' distro, compared to other 'light' ones I have used in the past. It feels very minimal as is. Shaving off a few Gigs would not make much difference IMHO.

nube

sangheeta not really an issue with Solus software installer. Laid out nicely, and surely not enough software choices to overwhelm.
Can't argue with the philosophy point. I do believe that should the Solus devs ever get some spare time(hehehe) they might possibly see room for something between a gentoo/arch build it yerself, and a solid minimal install with say budgie.

Justin

@sangheeta isn't that Gentoo? 😃

[deleted]

Justin drools for the thought of ivybridge-optimized Solus build

sangheeta

Justin
Honestly, this thing scares the hell out of me. 🤣

Justin

[deleted] It's potentially possible but you'd have to put in some hard compile time to get it there.

[deleted]

Justin Wanna lend buildserver? 😉

Justin

[deleted] My desktop sits idle about 18 hours a day and has 32GB RAM so, maybe? 😃

elfprince Solus base install is very small to start with, the only thing that honestly takes up space is LibreOffice, it's huge. Take that out and that's about as minimal as you'd get.

otavioschwanck

For me, Solus is pretty minimal already, just the basics installed. Compared with Manjaro that bring 25 office suites, 32 video players, etc.. Solus only bring the necessary.

tobcro

Good discussion! Since I started using Linux about 15 years ago, I have developed simple bash scripts that removes and installs the things I need - nothing else. Everytime I need to reinstall and setup a new machine I can just reuse them. I understand that this is not for the general user but for me it is perfect. Sane defaults are fine, but I have yet to find one distribution that does MY sane defaults. Solus is close but not perfect in any way.

I have read in earlier discussions that at least some of the Solus devs doesnt like Welcome screens or software. For me though, that would be brilliant. Startup Solus after installation, and BAM: "Welcome to Solus, what can we offer you now? Here is a link to the community. Here is where you can decide Chrome or Firefox, this or that. And, most importantly, here is a button if you just want to skip this whole damn thing and just start using the system using sane defaults."

As for why I dont want for instance Libre Office preinstalled is that I dont use it. Why should I have libraries, prerequisities and stuff installed that can collide with other software I have installed? But as I said, not a big problem, I just remove what I dont need and let others decide.

[deleted]

tobcro What do you use instead of LibreOffice?

tobcro

[deleted] I mainly use web based options for office applications. I have Office 365 from my work and at home I use Google Docs a lot.

[deleted]

elfprince I think Solus is about 15% from that 55gb

dbarron

And, of course the browser, because no one needs more than lynx, right ? (I'm being sarcastic, just so you know)
(Ok, now laughing) we could save space by just using wget and then a text editor to look at the results?
Oh wait, a text editor might be overkill, we could just cat it and pipe to more.

Justin

Firefox installed size 218MB.

I did come back though to mention my install (a few days old) is <9GB.

Libreoffice installed size (common package which is the bulk) is 672MB.

Edit: /usr/lib64/libreoffice is 1GB according to ncdu.

Edit2: Chrome + Spotify is _500MB also.

elfprince

Still 32G is used according to df -h . I removed what I could, but left LibreOffice and Free Office, plus Firefox and Chrome. Those are the heavyweights, I think. What else has so much weight?

Justin

elfprince Use either boabab (GUI) or ncdu (Terminal) to see what's taking up space.

kyrios

elfprince I install Solus on 12Gb virtual machines to make tests without any space issues. The used space depends on what you do and nobody else than you can tell that.

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