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 find it bloated if the system have things I don’t need are noticeably using up RAM and CPU. I couldn’t care less about extra unused packages on disk, they’re dormant. I don’t care about a few daemons or resident apps I don’t use either if they’re idle all the time and use minimal RAM. Bloat for me is something that noticeably affects my running system.
I would probably add (as a couple of others have already mentioned) if it slows down the update process by pulling loads of software/dependencies that I’m not using.
Me, occasionally. I like seeing the little Pac-Man eat away at progress of a download on EndeavourOS.
Also, this video covers it slightly.
Gentoo user here. I look at system load while compiling. (: But most of the time I can use my PC while portage is doing it’s job.
Yup. Fretting over a light daemon while running a hundred browser tabs is really missing the forest for the trees.
I’m not against bloat, I just want it to be MY bloat
When there’s ads in my terminal
It’s relative. If you installed everything you need, then it probably isn’t bloated. Bloat is something you don’t need and keep getting updates. My home server has 300+ packages while my desktop has 900+ packages (cannot tell the exact numbers on mobile). I’m currently on EndeavourOS as well, though I’m thinking about moving to Void.
The minute any Electron application is installed, it’s GG
