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.
I should add that if you want performance, stability and security you could do a lot worse than CentOS - it’s so good that Red Hat are basically killing it off because many think they feel it poses a huge threat to the RHEL they sell.
Rocky Linux seems like it’s getting more support so I’d keep an eye on that too
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.
@Exadra37 Maybe you should copy all the links from the ElixirForum thread here?
Linux From Scratch (LFS) is a project that provides you with step-by-step instructions for building your own custom Linux system, entirely from source code.
Currently, the Linux From Scratch organization consists of the following subprojects:
LFS :: Linux From Scratch is the main book, the base from which all other projects are derived.
BLFS :: Beyond Linux From Scratch helps you extend your finished LFS installation into a more customized and usable system.
ALFS :: Automated Linux From Scratch provides tools for automating and managing LFS and BLFS builds.
CLFS :: Cross Linux From Scratch provides the means to cross-compile an LFS system on many types of systems.
Hints :: The Hints project is a collection of documents that explain how to enhance your LFS system in ways that are not included in the LFS or BLFS books.
Patches :: The Patches project serves as a central repository for all patches useful to an LFS user.
But I don’t have the skills for it or I don’t want to torture my self
There are a few projects starting up hoping to replace CentOS but I think Rocky Linux seems to have the most support at the moment as it is created by one of the original CentOS creators
Also… I think people are preferring something more independent than backed by a big company… at least that’s the vibe I’m getting
Alpine Linux is a security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution based on musl libc and busybox.
Alpine standard 3.13.1 (Released Jan 28, 2021) is only ~133 MB.
