====== Ubuntu Minimal Install ======


===== Pros and Cons of using an Ubuntu Minimal Install =====

Pros

  * A very active development community
  * Well-known and considered easy to use
  * Very large software repositories (and all the benefits of Debian, on which it is based)
  * A predictable release schedule and the latest software
  * Update notifier

Cons

  * A full version of Ubuntu can take up over 4GB


===== How to Try This at Home =====

Download link: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD.

[[http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/minimal|This guide]] will lead you through the installation and tell you how to get a barebones installation with essentially only an X Window Manager, Login Manager, and Synaptic.

===== Variation: Xubuntu =====

Follow the instructions [[https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingXubuntu|here]] for performing a minimal install of Ubuntu and installing Xubuntu-desktop. The guide implies that the full installation of Xubuntu is about 1.2GB (and states that it is less than 1.5GB).