Why do Linux distros weight so much in average (>3GB), when minidistributions like SliTaz or DSL weight like a few MB doing almost the same things?
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Those distributions include the majority of the apps users want on the media itself. They’re not just linux and the desktop, they’re a browser (firefox, chrome, and others all on the same install disc), they’re art programs, they’re the little games like Solitaire, they’re the web services like a web site and database backend. And yes, there’s a word processor and spreadsheets app in there as well. All loaded onto the disc and you can probably pre-install them before the main system installation finishes.
With a few clicks of the mouse you can switch from English to German across the whole system without installing anything – it includes the translations for most languages (probably)
90% of what users might want to install after getting a system running is probably in those 3 GB. Probably you don’t want all of them, but they wanted to fill up the virtual USB/DVD drive (4 GB is a good size for a USB stick, just round down for safety’s sake) and fill it with the most commonly downloaded stuff.
These other distributions.. don’t. Either they are very niche and so don’t include these things, or they intend for you to install them yourself from the internet. The installer itself might even be internet-capable and download what it needs as it goes. In this case, the few MB are mostly drivers to get online and access the CD/DVD/USB drive.
If you’re only going to install Linux once, the smaller media is probably the better choice. If you’re going to install Linux on lots and lots of machines, having already downloaded everything and being able to just move from system to system has a lot of value. Or loading it onto several USB sticks to go even faster…
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