Fedora as a 'light weight' system?
 

Hello. After all the positive reviews Fedora 8 has been getting, I thought I'd give it a try. However, I'm not a big fan of GNOME, nor am I a big fan of GUI applications. My current desktop has the following main pieces installed: XFCE, irssi, mutt+ssmtp, Firefox, MPD+ncmpc, rtorrent, vim, lighttpd, openssh-server, openntpd + various cli C/C++ & Python development utilities.

I was wondering if I can achieve a relatively lightweight (i.e. not be forced to have /relatively large/ software installed, if I don't need said software) system with Fedora, which would use the above mentioned programs. I don't wish to have both GNOME (or KDE) and XFCE; just the latter. And I don't want to have a GUI email client when I'm using mutt+ssmtp.

So, is it 'easily achievable'? Or am I looking for another distribution.

P.S.: I hate display managers and boot splashes.

I understand you, I have the same problem years ago when installed RedHat7, the ansers is: Fedora is not for you. What is a good distro depends on who are you and how you plan to use it. Newbies love ubuntu and kubuntu, they get up and running quickly and do not have to install as a first step. Others have been trained under MS Windows and prefer a lookalike system; yet others come from old unix and are line commnad bound, use vi (old people use ed!), ... What we prefer is to choose the packages ourselves, a light and fast computer.
Debian makes it simple for us. Install the basic and then install the few programs we really use. Add a lightweith windows manager such as fvwm (I believe there is something lighter, but if you evolved from twm like me, the path is simple to fvwm).

Good luck
Hernan

I think Debian would be an idea install also.

http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/

Almost similar to a minimum install of gentoo but without th compile time. :)

Depends on your definition of "easy" ;-p

You can install using the custom package selection menu. Sure it will *still* install some packages you don't need but they can be uninstalled. RPM does provide for instance group selections with which you can (try to) get rid of selections. Some packages don't like to be uninstalled but if you know what you're doing you can use --force ;-p I won't say you'll end up with an install the size of a "basic" Debian or BSD system but it definately can be done.

Actually I'm *currently* on a Debian (SID) system; so in switching to Fedora I'd be moving away from debian(-based) distributions. RPM gives me a nostalgic feeling.

unSpawn:

Heh, a reply from the security maestro himself; it's an honour :)

well, I agree 'easy' is a subjective term. I don't remember where I've read (perhaps it was on LQ.. or FedoraForums) that XFCE and GNOME had some shared libraries, and that one would either have to: install GNOME, then XFCE and keep both, or install KDE, then XFCE, then remove KDE :-/ or some other complicated world domination plan <- I'd call that /difficult/.

I remember using.. Fedora Core (can't remember which version) and not being able to get rid of.. Evolution (!?). I checked with the #fedoracore guys on FreeNode and I was told "fedora is not supposed to be a lightweight distribution". Whilst I have the disk space, ram,swap & processing power to host GNOME, KDE, XFCE, e17 and probably most X window managers that exist.. I like to keep a clean system. I'm a tidy person and my tidiness expands to my computers. Being on a "need to have" basis helps with maintainance, security and general system (and administrator) health.

You're forgetting I'm also "just another" LQ regular. I do like to reply when I've got the time so it's not that weird to get one from me. (BTW it's mostly forensics for me these days). I fully agree with your reasoning wrt tidiness. Last time I installed GNU/Linux I did just that: small footprint custom package selection, scrape off some fat, add where necessary. But that was CentOS which I think has less necessary "base" packages compared to F.

Sorry, didn't mean to undermine other LQ users, it's just that as a farily passionate security person (from a programming point of view -- I hate actually taking security measures on my systems) I'm a bit biased (in search of a better word).

Can I bump this topic five years later?
What's a light Fedora/RH? PCLinuxOS??