[kwlug-disc] Ubuntu Server -- why so big?

[Jason Eckert]

You’ve simply installed Modern Ubuntu™, which no longer ships an OS so much
as a lifestyle choice.

What’s taking the space?
- Systemd, which runs everything under the sun on Linux nowadays and will
probably be what Linux is called in the future.
- Snap, which  comes bundled with its own copy of half the operating
system, so that every program can feel emotionally independent and never
rely on anyone else ever again. Redundancy is safety. Safety is size. Size
is love.
- Locales (Ubuntu doesn’t know what language you might want someday, so it
installs all of them)
- Firmware for stuff you don't have (Sure, you’re in a VM. Ubuntu knows
this. But Ubuntu does not care.)
- A bazillion “just in case” packages that you might one day (personally, I
never asked for cloud-init, but whatever.)

Side note: Fedora installs even more.

If you truly want a tiny system that does nothing but boot and stare
quietly into the void, there are still options:
- Debian netinst (the diet version)
- Debian + “uncheck literally everything”
- Alpine (if you enjoy discovering which basic tools are missing today)
- Or Gentoo, if you want to spend 7GB on your own time instead of disk space

But Ubuntu's goal nowadays isn’t minimalism. It’s to ensure that, no matter
what terrible idea you have later, the OS is already there waiting, arms
open, snapd running. Ubuntu just installed everything and the kitchen sink,
because it didn’t know which future you were going to pick.

On Mon, 2 Feb 2026 at 01:13, William Park via kwlug-disc <
kwlug-disc at kwlug.org> wrote:

> I'm trying to setup Debian/Ubuntu distro, small size, text-only, no
> desktop, in VirtualBox.  So, I tried "Ubuntu Server 25.10", because
> website says 2.5GB should be enough.  Well, fresh install takes up 7GB.
> The only optional thing I included is ssh server.
>
> Am I doing something wrong?
> What do you remember when you setup your Ubuntu Server?
>
>
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