A slim but scalable distro

[the gladiator]

I’m looking for: a distro with a very small (or even better none at all) set of packages bundled with the starting distro install but with a large (possibly huge) repository of packages; I would then select and install ONLY what I need.

Due to the limited number of packages I’m not considering distro such as DSL, Puppy, etc; for the same reason I have excluded (unfortunately) Slackware based distros (Nimblex would be perfect, look here ).

I’m rather focusing on stripped down distro such MCNLive and PCLinuxOS Minime (although the latter is based on a very old version of PCLinuxOS) and on distros that provide “networking install” such as Debian and Yoper.

Are you aware of something else belonging of these two categories ? Any other idea to meet my goal ?

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

I am using Debian Lenny these days. NetInstall will give you minimal system without X Server and you can install other packages later on.

[Thrillhouse]

Arch sounds like another one that might work for you. There's a net install CD and you can choose during installation how big or small of a system you want. And I have yet to come across a package I've wanted that wasn't in the repos somewhere, whether it be in the standard repos or in the AUR (Arch User Repository).

[oz]

I agree with the above posters.

Arch, Debian, and Gentoo can all be minimal distros that are easily scalable. In fact, I run Arch myself.

Have fun with the Linux experience...

oz

[the gladiator]

Thanks a lot for your replies !

I didn’t know at all Arch; it does look very interesting for my needs with a nice number of packages (7000 according to wikipedia). I’ve also found a video guide for the netinstall (in Italian but I share the link because I believe it’s useful anyhow to walk through the steps of the procedure).

More user friendly the Debian netinstall (with a GUI).

I’m planning to give it a go during the week-end although I’m a little bit scared because I wonder if I’ll be able to select all the base system modules I need (i.e. kde related modules such as fonts, menu management, wireless support, ….)