this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2024
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Arch Linux

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I feel my system is perpetually bloated, and try to maintain what applications I have installed but always seem to veer off into new applications or python modules and what ever else.

Just wondering how does one keep a lean daily use system?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Being overly concerned with 'bloat' is a waste of time.

For python use venv.

You can always ./configure && make skipping make install and run programs from that directory and just rm -rf the directory when you're done.

Containers also exist.

For advanced users guix makes it very easy to try out new software in an isolated environment.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Considering venvs as bloat is being a bit harsh on yourself. True that venvs don't try to share packages among themselves. But storage isn't costly enough to justify the effort in saving there.

There are plenty of development tools that take up more than 5GB of space for no reason. Even there, the bloat comes from the network bandwidth needed to update them and the fact that they make it easy to hide malware. Hardly anything free software can be considered bloated on that account.