Fedora minimal install option, a discussion with a 4 month life cycle

[Jef Spaleta]

I refer everyone to discussions that have come before...and seem to have
gone nowhere. If I remember correctly, people did say they were
experimenting on cleaning up the comps file, but then they stopped
reporting back with a comps file for others on the list to test.

the long thread:
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2003-August/msg01025.html
a side thread:
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2003-August/msg01344.html
a side comment:
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2003-August/msg01166.html


I've said it before and I'll say it again.... i HIGHLY doubt
anaconda is going to be hacked to provide more dials and knobs as part
of the install that are already present. And I don't see anaconda
getting thrown out in favor of another installer inside Fedora Core, and
I don't see having 2 different installer codebases in Fedora Core as
having much benefit beyond a small 0.1% userbase( a userbase who are
technically knowledgable enough to be able to build their own custom
isos using an outside core installer project like RULE). Multiple
install kernels and multiple install images inside Fedora Core for
general availability, would very much confuse and complicate development
and testing. 

But there is certainly room in the current comps file to clean up how
packages are grouped together for install issues. If people in the
community want to work on restructuring the comps file to provide a
better 'minimal' option, I'm sure there are people here would enjoy
testing such an endeavor by re-rolling isos and doing test installs
using the experimental comps files. But...if you seriously need an
absolute minimum install for something like a firewall/router(6 packages
or whatever it was) then i humbly suggest you are better off with a
distro designed specifically for that task
http://www.coyotelinux.com/. 

I frankly don't see much in the way of benefit trying to shoehorn very
targeted and specific purposed installation roles into Fedora Core's
installer.  But what I CAN get behind, is the idea of being able to use
one Fedora Core box as a 'mastering' host. Where you install a robust
'development environment' where you get access to easy to use tools so
you can bake your own specifically tasked and tailored installs, either
via:
rebuilding of RULE or anaconda based install iso mastering or 
kickstart file creation or
livecd mastering


-jef