What is truly bloated is their network-install images, starting with a 14MB kernel and 65MB initrd, which then proceeds to pull a 2.5GB image which they unpack into RAM to run the install.
This is especially egregious when running thin VMs for lots of things, since you now require them to have at least 4GB of RAM simply to be able to launch the installer at all.
Compare this to regular Debian, which uses an 8MB kernel and a 40MB initrd for the entire installer.
Or some larger like AlmaLinux, which has a 13MB kernel and a 98MB initrd, and which also pulls a 900MB image for the installer. (Which does mean a 2GB RAM minimum, but is still almost a third of the size of Ubuntu)
We're mirroring the images internally, not just because their mirrors suck and would almost double the total install time when using them, but also because they only host the images for the very latest patch version - and they've multiple times made major version changes which have broken the installer between patches in 22.04 alone.
Debian net installer is 700mb, still fits on CD-R and with a DE selection and base tools during setup, it’s still about 2gb installed as a fully functional system requiring very little to get gaming. Seems fine to me. This post is an Ubuntu problem.
Yes. It is bloated. But not for the reasons you may think.
Live OSes need to fit multiple requirements compared to the installed ones. They need to:
Install the OS without internet
Provide a test ground for the OS
Be a way to repair damaged OS
So of course it's bloated, but in a good way. You may be already familiar with Ubuntu, and not care about the live OS part, so it would be bloat for you.
You may not care about setting up disks, so GParted is bloat for you, etc...
If you want a less bloated installer, some other distros like debian give net installers
Every driver you could possibly need for any hardware in the last 20 years? This is a live CD and is expected to just work no matter what you’re running it on.
Edit: Also, of course, every program you might need to usefully test-drive a distro, like office apps, media players, image viewers, browser, email client, and a myriad more. Now that I’ve said it I find 6GB remarkably small.
Fedora also by default includes only free stuff. AFAIK Ubuntu includes non free codecs for media and other software that doesn't fit in FOSS category (it's also one of t
the reasons why Ububtu became so popular in my opinion, it just works works out of the box)
