32 LXF257 December 2019 http://www.linuxformat.comut of the box, most
mainstream distros are
bloated and chunky. In their
quest to appeal to the tastes
of a very large number of people, their
developers stuff them with a long list of
desktop productivity apps. The number of
packages not only increases the size of
the distro’s ISO image, but the bloat also
taxes your computing resources. While it
is true that on many recent computers
the excess baggage wouldn’t make
much of a difference, not everyone
has machines with 8GB of RAM or
an octa-core processor.That’s not to say that these hacks are
only for older machines. They’ll be just as
effective on modern machines and help
you optimise your resource consumption
for a much smoother desktop experience.
Back in the good ol’ days, when
installation from DVDs was in vogue,
package selection was an integral part
of anchoring the distro to your disk. This
allowed you the flexibility to tailor an
installation to your requirements. But with
the advent of Live installable mediums, it’s
become common for distros to just
offload all of the contents of the ISO
image to the disk. Sure, these Live distrosmake for faster installs, but you end up
with a system that’s chock full of utilities
and libraries you’ll never use.
The good news is that Linux distros
ship in a malleable state and enable you
to customise them. In this feature, we’ll
look at various ways to turn the default
installation of your favourite distro into
a galloping stallion. We’ll focus on the
recent Ubuntu 19.10 release, but most of
these hacks will on any Linux distro. The
feature is staggered into stages based on
your skill level, and to be successful on the
latter stages you’ll need to be pretty
familiar with Linux.O
Tired of his laptop being slow off the
mark, Mayank Sharma is on a crusade
to make his distro airy and nimble.
LIGHTER &
FA S T ER
LINUX
32 LXF257 December 2019 http://www.linuxformat.com
utofthebox,most
mainstreamdistrosare
bloatedandchunky.Intheir
questtoappealtothetastes
ofa verylargenumberofpeople,their
developers stuff them with a long list of
desktop productivity apps. The number of
packages not only increases the size of
the distro’s ISO image, but the bloat also
taxes your computing resources. While it
is true that on many recent computers
the excess baggage wouldn’t make
much of a difference, not everyone
has machines with 8GB of RAM or
an octa-core processor.
That’snottosaythatthesehacksare
onlyforoldermachines.They’llbejustas
effectiveonmodernmachinesandhelp
youoptimiseyourresourceconsumption
fora muchsmootherdesktopexperience.
Back in the good ol’ days, when
installation from DVDs was in vogue,
package selection was an integral part
of anchoring the distro to your disk. This
allowed you the flexibility to tailor an
installation to your requirements. But with
the advent of Live installable mediums, it’s
become common for distros to just
offload all of the contents of the ISO
image to the disk. Sure, these Live distrosmake for faster installs, but you end up
with a system that’s chock full of utilities
and libraries you’ll never use.
The good news is that Linux distros
ship in a malleable state and enable you
to customise them. In this feature, we’ll
look at various ways to turn the default
installation of your favourite distro into
a galloping stallion. We’ll focus on the
recent Ubuntu 19.10 release, but most of
these hacks will on any Linux distro. The
feature is staggered into stages based on
your skill level, and to be successful on the
latter stages you’ll need to be pretty
familiar with Linux.O
Tired of his laptop being slow off the
mark, Mayank Sharma is on a crusade
to make his distro airy and nimble.