MX Linux Forum

i saw one reviewer calling neofetch bloat ...

if you really need a fetchy thing .....pfetch is much more trim

you could save several KBs on your terabyte hard drive

:)

Hi,

Yes bloat is hugely misunderstood and @anticapitalista nailed it in his first post when he said they are usually talking (complaining) about apps they don't use being present in the menu..

As an example my project (AVL-MXE) is probably one of the largest ISO's you will find weighing in at around 3.5 Gb but it is also one of the tightest performing since reducing Audio latency is of key importance... The mistaken impression that the number and size of applications have much at all to do with RAM consumption, or general system speed etc. is indeed a source of great misunderstanding out there in amateur journalism world..*eyeroll

Some people also have no concept of the sizes of applications... they see something like 'MX-Tools' with all of it's useful entries and think hmmm there are more launchers in MX Tools than LibreOffice... MX Tools must be 'bigger' when in truth it is tiny in comparison.

anticapitalista wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 5:16 am So, to you, what is bloat and more importantly why and how.

Bloat: Software/Apps I don't use that have the potential to allow security breaches into my system.

The more potential for ‘insecurity’ the more I’d consider the software bloat. Things like: The software default listens on an interface, defaults to running, or can be easily started by some other item or software without the user’s knowledge.

A specific example I think would be CUPS. Useful if you have a printer and the perception is that everyone does (which is the reason why I believe it’s default installed and enabled). But, what is the percentage of people who don’t have printers, such that CUPS is just ‘bloat’ as defined above?*

Anyway, interesting question!

Best,
Michael

* Polls are basically useless to determine this, but hardware reporting has such a negative history (back to at least Win95 beta) I can’t see it really being an option. Maybe, if the QSI’s contain printers?, scan all the QSI info uploaded to the forum? Really IDK of a way to get the info without some ‘poll fraud’ mechanism corrupting the gathered data...

"Bloat: Software/Apps I don't use that have the potential to allow security breaches into my system."

@Michael-IDA ... Yes, but In this case, all kernel modules also have this potentiality ;-)

These are all useless bloat to me and get removed.
bluetooth, cups, cups-browsed, samba, nmbd, smbd, nfs-common, nfs-kernel-server, rpcbind, openvpn, clementine, and all the Indian and Asian fonts.

Bloat: too much programs/code running unnecessarily and consuming hardware resources.
Firefox is bloated compared with Palemoon (for the same end result).
Modern web pages are bloated compared with a handful of years ago (for the same end result).

Speaking of fonts, the Noto Sans family of fonts has gotten a bit out of hand. There are so many of them that it creates a bottleneck when trying to select a font from LO's font combobox. One of the first things I do after an install has settled down is remove the types I don't need and store them elsewhere, so they no longer show up. I have 192 Noto Sans types stored, and left in place less than 10 of them that I may use.

I'm not blaming that on anyone, because there are people who will need different font faces. It is what it is.

BV206 wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:30 pm These are all useless bloat to me and get removed.
bluetooth, cups, cups-browsed, samba, nmbd, smbd, nfs-common, nfs-kernel-server, rpcbind, openvpn, clementine, and all the Indian and Asian fonts.

How do you define 'bloat'? Simply software you don't use?

oops wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:17 pm "Bloat: Software/Apps I don't use that have the potential to allow security breaches into my system."

@Michael-IDA ... Yes, but In this case, all kernel modules also have this potentiality ;-)

You have a brain...

Seriously, you know what I mean, as it's somewhat hard to run a Linux system without the kernel...

I think the term more became common when some mobile manufacturer came with software pre-installed which users don't use, but still can't remove them with out doing something which makes end of warrenty.

For some a naked person is a painting
For me a well-dressed.

If I can remove some thing, I don't like, without making system problematic, why call it bloated
You may call it un nessesary stuffs.

But what's not useful to you, may be useful to thousands

That's why I love MX
It comes with things, even a computer without network connection, start using for all/ most required things out of box, with a install and go.

I never liked os that's not useful, come naked even without a word processor and hypocrisy is that they advertise it's freedom of choice.

I love MX, preconfigured for majority
Usable after installing with out a network connection for getting this or that.
Developers and team configuration these software more towards the os specific and a dummy finds his solution and I don't want to speak for experts, because they are,

I love MX , the way it is.

You like chrome install it, but don't suggest don't ship it with firefox.
Your love is Kingsoft office, install that, but don't suggest remove the libre office.

Bloated is a term coined by haters who don't agree with you, even if you are open and allowing change.

You mentioned correctly, a small iso contained with so many useful application, and a bare bones with large size.

I love bloated MX, thanks

Edit..
I found this definition from dictionary.
"swollen and rounded because of containing too much air, liquid, or food"

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio ... sh/bloated
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dicti ... sh/bloated

But I don't think MX is swollen, rather it's health and not rounded too...:)
Neither it's content air or food.
Yes if healthy is bloating in their own definition, I can't justify malnutrition ones