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Compared to the bloat-infested design of the Windows lineup, the Linux ecosystem may seem like a safe haven for folks who don’t want their OS afflicted with tons of intrusive “features” and non-essential services that run around the clock. That said, modern distributions tend to feature their own set of useless packages, especially once you go for Linux flavors that ship with pre-installed desktop environments.
Take Ubuntu, for example. Sure, you could run it on aged systems that don’t meet the minimum requirements for Windows 11, but you might find several other GUI-heavy distributions that deliver better performance. Having spent my fair share of time with different versions of Ubuntu, I have to admit that the full-desktop variant may seem overly bloated…
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Compared to the bloat-infested design of the Windows lineup, the Linux ecosystem may seem like a safe haven for folks who don’t want their OS afflicted with tons of intrusive “features” and non-essential services that run around the clock. That said, modern distributions tend to feature their own set of useless packages, especially once you go for Linux flavors that ship with pre-installed desktop environments.
Take Ubuntu, for example. Sure, you could run it on aged systems that don’t meet the minimum requirements for Windows 11, but you might find several other GUI-heavy distributions that deliver better performance. Having spent my fair share of time with different versions of Ubuntu, I have to admit that the full-desktop variant may seem overly bloated for Linux veterans. But you don’t have to deal with the excess services just to tinker with this uber-popular Linux distribution.
Why is Ubuntu so bloated?
It’s the most mainstream Linux distro for a reason
Linux distributions may have become more accessible than ever, but it can seem somewhat complex for newcomers who have yet to deal with the quirks of the FOSS operating system. The thing is, Ubuntu is designed to be as beginner-friendly as possible. Right from its installation wizard to even everyday work, it simplifies many of the seemingly complex aspects of Linux. Even if you compare it to the stability king Debian – the very distro it’s based on – Ubuntu is armed with everything you could ever need out of the box as a beginner.
That’s where the excess packages come into the picture. The extra drivers and software libraries ensure Ubuntu works on most hardware. UI-wise, the default GNOME desktop environment strikes the perfect balance between simplicity and customizability, though its RAM consumption can be a bit on the higher side – even more so when you compare it with lightweight desktop managers.
Then there are the more controversial snaps that Canonical ships with Ubuntu. Truth be told, I low-key despise them, as their abysmally slow load times and large size make them useless for me – and that’s before you include the fact that snaps tend to install their own file system for each app. But I digress. When you’re a newcomer to Linux, being able to install your favorite applications from the Snap Store is a lot easier than, say, running terminal commands to install them from the apt package manager.
Now, combine all that with a bunch of general-purpose applications, and you have a distribution that’s not really made for veterans or hardcore terminal users, but instead caters to the average Joe looking for an easy way to get into the Linux ecosystem.
Ubuntu Server is perfect for minimalists and Linux enthusiasts
It trims out most of the packages
Since I’ve played with my fair share of Linux distros – including CLI-based ones – I usually avoid going with the full-installation version of Ubuntu. That said, Ubuntu has a couple of other variants, one of which I recently used when trying to build a ultra-light NAS armed with only the minimal packages I need.
I’m talking about the Server edition, of course. Rather than shipping with numerous apps and a desktop environment, Ubuntu Server features a small number of packages without any GUI elements. Sure, you could say DietPi and Alpine have even fewer utilities and smaller ISO files, but Ubuntu Server is still light enough for advanced tinkering projects – including my home lab experiments. Heck, it doesn’t even enable SSH by default, and you could just turn off the snap functionality entirely if you abhor it as much as I do.
And you can always arm it with Ubuntu Desktop later
Although I have no issues using terminal-heavy distributions for my projects, I have to admit that I prefer GUI elements on my daily driver systems. Luckily, Ubuntu Server can be armed with GNOME without the extra packages you’ll find in the full-install version.
The best part? All you have to do is run the sudo apt-get install –no-install-recommends ubuntu-desktop and wait for the distro to work its magic. The –no-install-recommends argument prevents apt from installing Ubuntu’s recommended packages, so you only get ubuntu-desktop and its dependencies.
But what about the non-bloated Linux distros?
On the flip side, the Linux ecosystem has several flavors that feature a bare-minimum number of packages and services. Despite the name, DietPi is perfect for non-Raspberry Pi devices and typical x86 machines, while Alpine is just as useful for server projects (though its lack of support for systemd can be a challenge).
Then there’s Arch Linux that’s nowhere near as difficult as folks make it out to be. While the stability issues can be a bit of a buzzkill, it’s fairly lightweight. Plus, it’s versatile enough for most use cases – and I say that as the guy who uses it as a Linux-based dev VM.