I often hear folks in the Linux community discussing their preference for Arch (and Linux in general) because they can install only the packages they want or need - no bloat.
I’ve come across users with a couple of hundred packages installed (likely fresh installs), but I’ve also seen others with thousands.
Personally, I’m currently at 1.7k packages on my desktop and 1.3k on my laptop (both running EndeavourOS). There might be a few packages I could remove, but I don’t feel like my system is bloated.
I guess it’s subjective, but when do you consider a system to be bloated?
I’m asking as a relatively new Linux user - been daily driving for about 7/8 months
I have 12 cores and 64 GB RAM. I am not worried about “bloat”. The people trying to keep 20 year old Thinkpads running are.
16c/64gb Zen4 system here with optimised packages and kernel. I still care about bloat. Not from a performance reason obviously, but from a systems management / updates / attack surface point of view. Fewer packages == fewer breakages == fewer headaches.
Exactly, this is the reason I use Gentoo on my Zen3 12c w/ 32gb RAM. Smooth and clean. Nothing should stutter below 60 FPS or lagging when I hit a key on the keyboard.
Or maybe they’re trying to keep their system minimised from yet to be found security issues in the hundreds of packages pre installed that they don’t ever use or need, and act as nothing other than additional threat surface.
The time you start caring is too late.
Despite the cores and the ram, the weekly updates on my arch are starting to compile shit for over 30 minutes and I am starting to think about what I can uninstall or whether I should set up my own arch repos that do the compiling out of sight.