Minimal Installation Option

[XeonBionic]

Could you add a 'minimal install' option, like the one Ubuntu, xubuntu, etc has? Only coming with essentials, and a web browser and such.

[gittiest personITW]

Welcome to the forum.

This comes up every so often and in theory its a good idea, but.....
For instance, you've put

coming with essentials, and a web browser and such.

Is a web browser bare minimum?
is 'and such' bare minimum?
Is a desktop bare minimum?
What about a network manager?

See where I'm going with this? Your bare minimum is different from someone else's bare minimum.

[roy331]

how about for a minimal installation medium having a web install or during installation let you choose what components you do or don't want to install. Every time I personally install I'm removing half the software installed because i don't use them.

[karlchen]

Hi, folks.

Linux Mint 19.x and 20.x are based on Ubuntu 18.04 / 20.04 respectively.
If you remove all the software, which the Mint team provides to turn Ubuntu into Mint, and most of the software, which Mint inherits from Ubuntu, then you end up here: Ubuntu base releases
I.e. your minimal Mint installation already exists. It is named Ubuntu base release.

Cheers,
Karl

[roy331]

You don't understand if i wanted straight Ubuntu I would get and use Ubuntu. I'm talking about that fact I don't use for example all the multimedia programs in the ISO or LibreOffice but would also in same time like to keep gparted in my installation as well as bootrepair which are on the ISO but removed during installation and all of this has to be changed after installation. you also can't update the live media and install it updated already or remove programs before install and have that installed.

[karlchen]

Hi, roy331.

I may not understand, what should be included in and excluded from a minimal Linux Mint release according to your personal wish list. True.
But I do understand that there will be at least as many different "include this" and "exclude that" wish lists for a minimal Linux Mint system as there are users, who would like to see such a minimal Linux Mint release.
You cannot please everybody, no matter how hard you try.

Cheers,
Karl

[Termy]

I think this would be a good change. Other distributions are doing it, so I can't see the harm in it. You needn't overthink what 'minimal' is to whom, but simply stick to a less 'everything under the kitchen sink' approach. I am perhaps biased though, as I prefer a very minimalistic approach to Linux.

If you're an experienced Linux user, familiar with the packages, understand how to learn what a given package does, and understand package dependencies, then I recommend looking into simplify-ubuntu, as this sort of thing is largely why I wrote it back in 2018. It could do with some TLC, but it does a good job of de-bloating your Debian- or Ubuntu-based installation in a convenient, interactive way.

Welcome to the forums, BTW.