Exadra37

Exadra37

What is the most minimalist Linux server distro?

I am asking for any distro that only has the bare-bones to be able to get a shell in the server and then just install the packages as we need for the application we want to run. Think of it like the RancherOS or CoreOS that only have the strictly necessary to run containers, but for bare metal or VPS servers wanting to run non dockerized workloads.

Current distros for server have too many packages you may need or not, and a lot of them you don’t need, thus they pose a security risk, because they are one more attack vector that can be exploited and put the system at risk.

Most Liked

AstonJ

AstonJ

Many datacentres offer a ‘minimal’ distro:

The minimal images generally contain no software other than SSH, allowing an unlimited scope for creativity.

Operating System Versions
Arch Linux latest Minimal (64-Bit)
CentOS 6.10 Minimal (64-Bit)
CentOS 7.7 Minimal (64-Bit)
CentOS 8.1 Minimal (64-Bit)
Debian 8.11 (Jessie) Minimal (64-Bit)
Debian 9.12 (Stretch) Minimal (64-Bit)
Debian 10.3 (Buster) Minimal and LAMP (64-Bit)
Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS (Xenial Xerus) Minimal (64-Bit)
Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS (Bionic Beaver) Minimal and Nextcloud (64-Bit)
Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo) Minimal (64-Bit)
Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine) Minimal (64-Bit)
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) Minimal (64-Bit)

EG: https://docs.hetzner.com/robot/dedicated-server/operating-systems/standard-images/

dimitarvp

dimitarvp

Not surprised to see Arch in the list. Last time I had Manjaro (derivative of Arch) on a laptop with XFCE installed, and after I installed a good amount of software on it, at startup that OS was taking 450MB of RAM with 30+ daemons running, and a fully functioning desktop environment. :heart:

@Exadra37 Maybe you should copy all the links from the ElixirForum thread here?

Exadra37

Exadra37

I am documenting every step in a git repo, and making a bash script to run as user data in Digital Ocean or as part of a cloud init configuration.

This is part of my Phoenix360 project, and I will make it available in an Elixir website.

It will have guides for hardening Phoenix, servers and to build 360 web apps.

Where Next?

Popular Linux topics Top

dimitarvp
Hey everyone, I am about to receive a work laptop: the Lenovo T490 (could be changed to T490s, unclear as of yet). I am after the perfe...
New
Exadra37
I am thinking in building or buy a desktop computer for programing, both professionally and on my free time, and my choice of OS is Linux...
New
Exadra37
I am asking for any distro that only has the bare-bones to be able to get a shell in the server and then just install the packages as we ...
New
KnowledgeIsPower
It is a bit late for RockyLinux to ship their official release, they are still in RC1. I am ready using AlmaLinux 8.4.
New
0m3
Hello, everyone. It is necessary that the calling process and the child process are in the same memory space. Therefore, I use the CLON...
/c
New

Other popular topics Top

Devtalk
Hello Devtalk World! Please let us know a little about who you are and where you’re from :nerd_face:
New
AstonJ
Or looking forward to? :nerd_face:
New
siddhant3030
I’m thinking of buying a monitor that I can rotate to use as a vertical monitor? Also, I want to know if someone is using it for program...
New
AstonJ
Curious to know which languages and frameworks you’re all thinking about learning next :upside_down_face: Perhaps if there’s enough peop...
New
Exadra37
I am asking for any distro that only has the bare-bones to be able to get a shell in the server and then just install the packages as we ...
New
wmnnd
Here’s the story how one of the world’s first production deployments of LiveView came to be - and how trying to improve it almost caused ...
New
AstonJ
If you get Can't find emacs in your PATH when trying to install Doom Emacs on your Mac you… just… need to install Emacs first! :lol: bre...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Build efficient applications that exploit the unique benefits of a pure functional language, learning from an engineer who uses Haskell t...
New
husaindevelop
Inside our android webview app, we are trying to paste the copied content from another app eg (notes) using navigator.clipboard.readtext ...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Author Spotlight: Peter Ullrich @PJUllrich Data is at the core of every business, but it is useless if nobody can access and analyze ...
New