[CentOS-devel] how minimal is a minimal too minimal

On 19 March 2014 15:11, Anssi Johansson <centos at miuku.net> wrote:

> 19.3.2014 18.32, Karanbir Singh kirjoitti:
> > the aim being to setup a base image, that is under 150mb to download and
> > deploy.
>
> I think there's a bit of confusion between what is included in the
> minimal.iso, and what gets installed as a result of installing from the
> said minimal.iso. Currently the set of packages that gets installed from
> minimal.iso is fixed, but it doesn't necessarily need to be that way.
>
> How about a single minimal.iso that lets you decide how minimal you want
> it to be? The default would contain the usually required tools like yum,
> openssh-server, dhclient, dhcpv6-client, but if someone doesn't want
> them, they could be deselected from the installer. Likewise, if someone
> needs openssh-clients, it could be selected to be installed from the
> installer.
>
> Yes, that may mean some more downloading for those folks who need to use
> only the 'micro' package set, but the benefit of having a slightly more
> general purpose .iso outweights that, imho.
>
> I'm looking at this from the support perspective. "I installed the micro
> variant, but there's no yum to install more packages?" -- "Correct, the
> micro.iso does not contain yum, you will need to download and burn and
> install the minimal.iso if you need that [or jump through other hoops]"
> -- "Well that sucks, I'm switching to $some_other_distro."
>
>
Having dealt with that kind of support question for 15+ years... they are
usually going to say that no matter what. It is a game of whatif you can't
get past because this type of person is mostly looking for an excuse not to
use you versus seeing it as something they should have known.

You can call it micro-noyum.image or put it behind a "Do you really want to
do this" download page and you will end up with people still asking the
same question and the same reply when told. In the end, the best you can do
is say "That's great, you may find <X> more to your flavour" and go on
supporting the people who want to be using CentOS. [Only took me 12 of my
15+ years to figure that out.]

-- 
Stephen J Smoogen.
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