What Makes a Linux Distro Bloated?

So it's funny I so often hear the term bloated as it relates to a Linux distributions so often from so many Linux YouTubers that they never give any actual substance to that stance they have. So I ask the question and give my answer on what makes a Linux distro bloated?

[DistroTube]

What makes a distro bloated? Systemd! (mic drop) :D

[AnaRita-]

For me bloat is having install applications by default and I cannot uninstall them that drives me BANANAS and if the bloat hinders my ability to get things done because it gets on my way or becomes annoying or slow this up then I will kiss that distro goodbye no matter if it looks pretty because pretty to me means nothing not saying is not important just saying for me it is not that important but hey that just the odd me OCD coming out LOL so BITE ME :)

[Henk]

Bloated for me is when a distro ships with features the majority of people would not want or with more space / dependencies than needed to achieve its goal.

When i designed my Henkjaro i went for a Windows user mentality of it has something for everyone but either one of its kind or a small size without to many package dependencies. I wanted to give a feel that everything on that disk could be reasoned for by either usecase or size.

So yes, the distro contains games many users will probably never touch but all of them combined aren't more than 50mb and most of them are part of kde's projects. But this is for the casual user like my parents who are not gamers and like to play those basic games. Minetest out of these might be considered bloat but its only 10mb, has barely any dependencies, is a good opengl testing tool and something for the kids to play at grandma's house. Because ultimately that is how i designed that section, a minimal set of bored at grandma type stuff.

For the internet category its one of each, so no multiple browsers mail clients etc.

Photography i went for gimp but since gimp can be confusing it also has an MS Paint alternative.

Kodi can be seen as bloat but its easy to uninstall and a great replacement for windows media center. But for media it is once again one of each. So you get VLC and OBS but no alternatives.

System people might prefer something different then etcher but etcher is commonly used and understood. I do offer some duplicates here like htop and glances but that makes sense to me.

And i think this type is well balanced since its about the size of windows. Having a good starter set of tools but nothing more. With no ads, extra unnesesary system services or redundant alerts.

So to me its about offering enough for most users and minimal install people will consider this bloated. But in my philisophy having it availible won't hurt as long as it does not have a n impact on the users that do not use these programs.

[rbtrimble]

Finally someone who gets that bloated is user and USER CASE specific. Bloat is a word thrown around too often by people in YouTube Linux community in the same vein as “workflow”. If you’re running a distro to game, you don’t need programs to code, or produce videos or music. The amazing thing about Linux is that it’s a huge community of people who agree to disagree on what is and isn’t essential for themselves. FOSS is a toolkit, you pick and choose the packages you install for your USE CASE. I don’t believe 100% of users can agree that any one program is bloated - it’s a matter or perspective. My use case is different from that vast majority of other use cases. Honestly “bloated” it’s another way of saying “not for me” “not my cup of tea” or in some cases as I’ve seen this past week on YouTube a way to take a stab at another distro that isn’t your favorite. Apologizes for long response

TLDR: If you feel a distro is bloated, that’s your use case and your perspective. Coding efficiently is another discussion entirely. You’re welcome to fork the program for your specific needs if you feel that way. Aside from that, there’s a reason we aren’t all using the same distro.

[mitchelvalentino]

Not just installing, but actually _using_ LFS/BLFS teaches one that bloat is relative and not necessarily a bad thing. Some of that so-called bloat even comes in handy sometimes. And one can always rm or purge whatever is unnecessary. The user is the defining factor more than the code itself.

But by a strict definition that assumes _inefficient_ or _wasted resources_ are an aspect of bloat, then I’d consider bloat to be undesirable. Yet there are denotations and connotations to bloat that make such aspects difficult to quantify and qualify.

In terms of the Linux systems in my homelab, I think my non-systemd, non-GUI, old-school Slackware system feels more bloated than my Fedora 30 Gnome system. Yet they’re both great, and I wouldn’t change a thing about either one.

Also, I’ve noticed that the word bloat seems to be thrown around more by Linux noobs who’ve recently discovered Arch, tiling window managers, suckless, ricing, and a world beyond Microsoft. I don’t mind the word bloat as much as some people, and I like Arch and ricing, but it does get annoying that there’s no true agreed-upon definition.

[franzj]

What is one man's bloat is another man's treasure

[XtobbeX]

I couldn't agree more. My opinion mirror yours. This reminded me the first time I tried to install LFS myself. I choose to compile everything that were possible for 64 bit. After my system finally was bootable I thought to myself do I really need both /lib and /lib32? I started to symlink all my 32 bit libs and start remove my libs. Resulting in a broken system and had to recompile half of my packages again. Stupid but a little learning experience.

[vmaxmadness]

If you don't want bloated, install a minimal distro or do things the Arch way. Most distros should have the software any average user would need. When you are comfortable with Linux, you should know how to "unbloat".

[michaelberger]

you are just hilarious to you speak plain english and add humor to now on the term as a linux the term is not even in my cause like you if you dont want you can uninstall shit.... and switch it all great

[lemler]

I like "Bloated" distro's bc I discover new software that way but imma noob so yeah

[benstechroom]

I have 2 main definitions of bloat. One is something that uses unnecessary resources. So Gnome can be considered bloat in some respects. That being said, if all those apps and features work, that can kinda be overlooked. My 2nd definition is extra crap installed by default that I cannot remove that just dont work. KDE in my opinion has a lot of that. Examples: online account integration had been a hit or miss for me. Kmail ate up all 8GB of my RAM forcing me to hard reboot my system to get it working again. That being said, you are right. Bloat is relative and that is just my take on it. I also agree that anything can be called bloat. I installed Arch and I have every DE officially supported installed. I default to i3 most of the time. But some would call that bloat. And I agree. Reason I have them all installed is so I can check in on them from time to time to see how they have changed, etc... Its an interesting conversation to have.

[tedg]

The problem is when the bloat hinders your ability to get things done.



For example, when loading and downloading a ton of album art images slows down your music library app and results in audio skipping, cpu spikes, and lag due to all of that io.

(Then again, the underlying problem could be poor design or settings due to PEBCAK.)


Meanwhile, Plex is bloated, but that doesn't make it any less useful.



A bloated distro, or even a bloated kernel, isn't the problem: it's packed with modules, apps, libraries, and other features that you may or may not find useful. Often times, we have the ability to remove or disable the bloat.


Knoppix is a good example: it contains support for practically everything under the sun, designed to be used from a thumb drive and make itself more useful as a portable OS.

[Kraust]

Linux users not understanding bloat lmao. Go try FreeBSD and tell me if it's base install is bloated or not. An Arch user would argue that FreeBSD is "bloated" because it comes with bsd-config and network drivers because FreeBSD's buildworld is much more robust than the GNU operating system and not riddled by real bloat like systemd.