Re: Help, tailored Linux desired

From: Michael Black (et472_at_FreeNet.Carleton.CA)
Date: 09/16/04 

Date: 16 Sep 2004 16:26:43 GMT

Ramnam (sanramnam@yahoo.com) writes:
> sanramnam@yahoo.com (Ramnam) wrote in message news:<c27ccfaf.0409150853.27927ed2@posting.google.com>...
>> I have always wanted an extremely "clean" version of linux which
>> allows me to surf using opera/firefox and do emails. I would not need
>> any other software in it. (Not even editors like Pico. Just internet
>> and email.)I have a Pentium 4, 1.7G, Celeron, 80G Hdd and modem. Can
>> you please suggest me how to come up with such a "clean" version of
>> linux myself? If there are any prepackaged version of linux like
>> described above, could you please let me know? I would really really
>> be grateful to you. Thanks.
>
>
> Thank you beautiful people who replied to my post; Michael, John and
> Mr. nobody. It seems like I could not make myself clear
>
> enough. Let me put it this way. Using Windows instead.
>
> When I buy Win XP, the system comes bundled with:
> 1. drivers that I never possibly ever use (printer, graphics, modem
> etc.) except the One that I plug in.
> 2. An internet explorer
> 3. Media Player
> 4. Outlook express
> 5. Some simple games etc.
> 6. and a lot of other stuff that I rarely use.
>
> I as a user want to use Opera for internet and email. And I don't want
> any of the stuff as described through points one to
>
> four. So if it was possible, I would remove all those stuff thus
> making my install smaller, cleaner (because the needless
>
> bloat is removed) and less prone to crashes and frequent reinstalls.
> Also, I believe the system on which this sort of
>
> configuration is installed should be a lot faster. The point here is,
> I don't want anything, any software, however small or
>
> nifty in my distribution that I am not going to use. Since I cannot
> have this in windows, I want to have a Linux system that
>
> can.
>
>
> The reason I have been dreaming of this system is that I find that
> over ninety percent of the time, I use my machine for
>
> internet and email. (I use XP most of the time for this purpose and RH
> 8 for the fun of linux.) And now I have two installs
>
> of XP. One consists of all my the programs that I use like Office,
> Photoshop, Encyclopedia etc. The other install of XP only
>
> has opera and nothing else. I use the latter for internet only and
> whenever I need to work with docs, I switch over to the
>
> "clutterd" version from my "pure" version. My wish is to have the
> "pure" version of Linux instead of XP. But since I know
>
> Linux is configurable, I overwhelmingly would like to remove all those
> things that donot directly depend upon my running
>
> opera over linux. Everything else is to be removed. For example, no
> source codes, no drivers of graphics card except the
>
> intel one that my system uses, one matching driver for sound card and
> modem, no programming languages, no compilers (if they
>
> are not dependent) no printer drivers, no drivers for LAN card, no
> extra fonts, no multiple browsers (konqurer, etc), no
>
> music playing software or word processing or spreadsheets or jpeg
> viewers or bmp viewers. Just the absolutely necessary files
>
> to run Opera over Linux. Now, advise me how I should proceed.
>
>
> Thanks in advance, once more.
>
> :)
>
> ramnam

When I first tried Linux, in 2000, the only useable computer I had
had a 240meg hard drive, and of course some of that went to the swap
space. One of the problems I had with that installation was figuring
out what was needed, because obviously there was very little I could
put in. The fact that I was just starting with Linux meant I really had
no clue.

I never used that system except for a bit of fiddling. It was too limited.
So I actually spent real money, abeit not all that much, for a 200MHz
Pentium with a 2gig hard drive. I could throw everything on with that
installation. I didn't have to decide whether I needed something, or
do a package by package install as I tried things out. My original intent
was to remove things as I determined their lack of value to me, but I had
plenty of hard disk space, so I never did that. The only thing I took off
was some of the games, because I did start playing them and the only way
to resist was to get rid of them.

Your "slim" system will take a fair amount of understanding, and effort,
compared to just throwing everything on. You do indeed have way more
space than will be needed, the installation I did last week all fit into
a 5gig partition, with plenty of space left over for tiles. Since you have
the space the extra stuff will not bother you. You will in effect never know
they are there, unless you actually use them.

Having all those extra applications and utilities will not slow things down.
They'll just be there in case you need them.

You seem to be making the error that lots of programs will slow things down.
But unless they are run, they'll not affect performance. And I wouldn't call
having lots of options "bloat". I'd call a program that has too many
features, and takes up a lot of space as bloat. When I was using a Mac,
most of the time I just used a desk accessory editor, because it did all I
needed, and was easy to start up. Your consideration would be better placed
towards figuring out what the minimal program is that will do what you want.
Which email program has what you want? Keep in mind that a lot of bloat comes
from GUI based setups; if you can live without a mouse for an email program,
there are plenty of text based mailreaders that lack all that bloat. Same
with browsers. I rarely use a graphic browser, instead I use a text only
browser, and not only does that not take up much disk or memory space (though
I don't suffere from lack of each), but it starts up almost immediately. But
since I have a full install, I can fire up a graphic browser when needed, or
even choose between graphic browsers to see how a page appears in
different browsers. I consider it ironic that the "mainstream" distributions
I've sampled, when a small installation is done, don't put on the simple
text based programs, but load it all up with bloated GUI based applications.

Your concerns also need to be applied to configuration of the distribution
after it's installed. It's easy to configure so lots of things do not start
up when you turn on the computer, and that will have a much bigger effect on
speed than having "too many extra programs" on the hard disk. Pick the
right choice of desktop/X manager, and you will see a difference in speed.

   Michael