Minimal option for Solus install?

Justin , well right off the bat, I forgot about my VMs - that's 10G right there. Then some left over config dotfiles from several games I have uninstalled a while ago. No more mystery. Case closed, ha!

Yes virtual machines add it up pretty darn fast...but they're so cute and so useful...sigh.

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.

[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.

About a week late to this conversation but I also would love a minimum install version. I understand Solus aims to provide sane defaults and for users new to Linux that is great and there is a great selection. However for people who have been using Linux for over a decade, there are packages we already use (either for familiarity or preference) instead of some of these defaults and there are choices made that we would never make. Yes I can just remove these as always said in these discussions but personally I would rather build up than strip down. A minimal install would be for more advanced users who choose to use Solus instead of say Arch or Gentoo.

Anyway, I also understand that Solus does not have as much manpower and maybe if that grew this might change so I'm not suggesting it should be done immediately. But I did want to give further reasons for why this is requested and show there are a few users who would like this.

Are you guys talking about an ISO with no desktop? Or just less apps?

Justin I believe they would love a bare system, with just the X, Network Manager and wifi drivers. Then they would install things of their choice. :-)

elfprince What about people who use Ethernet? Wifi drivers are unneccessary bloat for them

@[deleted] And what about networking? Clearly we shouldn't assume someone has network connectivity instead of just installing it from a USB they had delivered from a pidgin, so clearly we shouldn't have NetworkManager too!

viyoriya I think forcing old versions on specific packages would cause breakage though

[deleted] hi my idea is i just need an update for my installed software i don't want to install new software. in the software center if i don't install new software the list grows and i cant easily find my required update . So if any option to ignore the new software's will be nice right so the list will be less.

viyoriya I honestly don't know what you're after. If you install updates from software center, you won't get new software unless the new versions of packages depend on something.

[deleted] ooh i was talking about software center / other Updates mainly kernel and header updates

Justin

Are you guys talking about an ISO with no desktop? Or just less apps?

Something like Debian netinstall or something without even Xorg installed.

viyoriya That's a great way to have an unsecure system that will eventually break altogether. Install your updates.

RLFontan

Personally i would like to have a "Alternative Downloads" section to get access to a minimal install iso, its a nice thing to have... i don't know if it's hard to maintain or something...

Not going to happen. For us a minimal install includes a functional desktop environment. Even if that is just i3 and useful apps.

Would be nice to an i3 user to have a feature like that. Would be nice to a KDE Plasma tester, just download a netinstall with the proper integrity check and install, instead of using testing isos without a integrity check.

I have no intention of providing netinstall images any time soon. This is not something an average user needs.

Also, besides we can consider this a "technical preciosity": less packages = less vulnerabilities to be explored.

Not necessarily. You forget that some packages like apparmor actually close security holes

I really like Solus, it's an independent distro focused on the desktop... no companies getting in the way, no mix of interests... but i must confess that i feel like sometimes Solus overprotect the user... i feel like, if that decision of do not produce a netinstall iso is based on pragmatism, than it's fine, but if its based on protecting a certain philosophy, then it's an exaggeration.

Obs: i also agree that for the average user an "out of the box" mindset is better, so, if a netinstall is hard to maintain, maybe the best decision is to extend this idea to future, when probably Solus will have more man work... i agree it's not an necessary thing.

It's philosophical in this case, not pragmatic. Home users don't need netinstalls. That's an Enterprise feature.

Obs2: I really hope that the new Solus package manager will solve this "orphan packages" problems in the proper way, without harming the average user.

eopkg already does this. The problem that you are running into is that what you think is an orphan was manually installed as a part of the ISO and marked as such. Therefore it isn't an orphan.

In the end, i think we should trust Solus leaders. They should know how much Solus can handle "non-essential" stuff, and how much that could hurt or take out the focus of the project or not. For now, for normal installations i keep my eyes on Solus, for minimal ones i keep my eyes on Void Linux or maybe Debian.

We aren't a minimal distro. We support modern hardware and software, which means being able to spare a few GBs on a fresh install.

For us a minimal install includes a functional desktop environment. Even if that is just i3 and useful apps.

Minimal + useful = great!

DataDrake eopkg already does this. The problem that you are running into is that what you think is an orphan was manually installed as a part of the ISO and marked as such. Therefore it isn't an orphan.

There is a way to change that?