There are similar posts from last year, so I don’t know if I add a post to a closed topic or start a new one?
I’m seeing a discussion about bloat on a minimal install KDE of 900 packages. My setup is Gnome with btrfs snapshots and I have 1221 packages and don’t even have Libre Office on it yet. I see the hard disk is using just 4% so I’m not concerned with storage, but I do wonder about all these updates to programs I am not even using, or know about.
What is normal? I have removed packages like Inkscape and looking at getting rid of that annoying eos-notifier, but what should I do? Should I be concerned?
I don’t think there is any way to answer that. The common definition of bloat seems to be anything that specific individual doesn’t want on their system.
Since that is entirely a matter of personal preference, there is no objective way to say if you currently have too much or too little. One person’s bloat is another person’s essential package. Further, the number of packages doesn’t really matter all that much. What matters is that there aren’t extra packages you don’t want and nobody can answer that for you.
So…96% of your space is free? That seems pretty OK unless it is some enormous enterprise array.
Remove packages you don’t want installed.
No.
The goal shouldn’t be to have as few packages as possible. The goal should be to not have packages lying around you don’t want/need.
I have seen people go so far as to install software, use it and then remove it each time they need it to reduce “bloat”. I think this is complete pointlessness.
Keep in mind on Linux that the majority of packages aren’t the software you select from your launcher to run, they are libraries and utility packages that the other software needs.
If you want to know if something else needs a packages you can look at the reverse dependencies with pactree
For example, let’s say you want to know if you need some some random package you don’t know about like glibc. You can use pactree -r glibc to get a list of packages that require it.
Relatively speaking, there is a lot of bloat on Arch you can’t get rid of (at least not without some really serious effort).
For example: Bash, systemd, python… There certainly exist more minimal distros out there if you are very concerned about bloat. Some people even consider GCC and glibc to be bloat.
And don’t get me started on the Linux kernel! Compared to it, even windoze seems lean.
However, since you’re using KDE, I see your definition of bloat is not nearly that strict
Just go over your package list and remove the things you don’t want. If they are dependencies of something you do want, then don’t remove them, of course.
All of the packages from the endeavouros repo are non-essential to a functioning system and can be removed.
I do love my bloat and it does not affect my system in a bad way, and indeed I use mostly all of the packages I added to the lean EndeavourOS base install.
And yes a good advice is to keep your system CLEAN b.t.m. call any bill only one time:
try a package or AUR build
test it if it does what you need or what you like.
decide if you want to keep it and if not remove it right away.
on longer run, the same … if you find that application is not what fits your needs go remove it.
No. How many packages do you have on your system is not important. If you use certain software it is not a bloat and it can have a lot of dependencies.
Whether it’s bloat or not, it’s debatable, but given how feature-rich it is, it’s remarkably light and fast. Sure, most of these features I’ll never use, but it’s all nice to have regardless.
1956 packages here
It’s all relative! I like to use my machine to the max. So I install everything I need and never worry about what is bloat and what is not.
But even with this number of packages I would say there’s no bloat on my system.
bloat discourse reminds me a lot of overclocking/benchmarking. there is this point where it just becomes about seeing a number rather than what you’re actually trying to accomplish with your machine. forget about the number and focus on what you need/want and what you dont. that’s it, otherwise who cares?
