Minimal installs have this fame of being clear, centered, virtually virtuous, like your laptop is about to repair its life and begin making higher selections. In actuality, what normally occurs is way much less poetic. You take away a bunch of issues, really feel unusually highly effective for a short time, after which run headfirst into the primary file your system not is aware of the right way to open.
So naturally, I didn’t simply go together with Ubuntu’s minimal set up and name it a day. Come on, guys, that may have been smart.
As an alternative, I put in it, regarded round, and determined it nonetheless felt somewhat too comfy. Too full. So I began eradicating issues, one after the other, with a quite simple rule in thoughts: if I didn’t explicitly select it, it didn’t get to remain. No bundled apps quietly ready to be helpful. No “simply in case” instruments. No invisible helpers smoothing issues out within the background. Only a desktop, a terminal, and a rising consciousness that I used to be slowly dismantling the elements of the system that make it really feel easy.
Ubuntu minimal isn’t truly
It simply hides the litter extra
Credit score: Shaun Cichacki/MUO
Ubuntu’s minimal set up gives the look that you simply’re ranging from one thing lean, virtually stripped right down to the necessities, however what you truly get is a full GNOME‑model desktop with far fewer pre‑put in functions. The desktop atmosphere remains to be totally there, the identical providers are operating, and the system behaves precisely like Ubuntu at all times does, simply with fewer apparent apps in entrance of you. It’s much less crowded, nevertheless it isn’t truly minimal in any significant sense.
It’s nearer to tidying up a room by placing issues out of sight slightly than eradicating them totally. All the pieces remains to be there, simply quieter, which someway makes it simpler to disregard. When you discover that, it turns into tough to deal with it as a clear place to begin. It feels extra like a system that has already made loads of selections for you, even when it’s pretending to not. So as a substitute of accepting that model of “minimal,” I stored eradicating issues till the system truly began to really feel completely different.
Eradicating apps is simple
Till you attempt to use your laptop
Eliminating pre-installed apps is simple sufficient that it virtually appears like a trick. Just a few instructions, a little bit of overconfidence, and abruptly your system seems to be cleaner and lighter, as if you happen to’ve improved one thing basic. That phantasm lasts proper up till you attempt to do one thing regular. A downloaded archive simply sits there as a result of nothing is aware of the right way to open it. A PDF doesn’t launch as a result of there’s no software related to it anymore. Media recordsdata turn into unusually quiet since you eliminated the participant with out actually fascinated by it.
None of this breaks the system in a dramatic method. It simply introduces a gradual, low-level resistance into every part you do.
What turns into clear in a short time is that these “further” functions weren’t simply non-obligatory litter. They have been small, sensible solutions to frequent conditions, dealing with issues so that you didn’t have to consider them. As soon as they’re gone, you’re abruptly concerned in each little determination the system used to make in your behalf, and that adjustments your entire expertise.
Rebuilding your OS adjustments the way you make selections
You cease putting in issues out of behavior
Screenshot by Hannah Knight — No attribution required
After the preliminary frustration settles, the method shifts from reacting to rebuilding. As an alternative of reinstalling every part in a rush, you begin being attentive to what you really need within the second. If a PDF gained’t open, you put in a viewer, however you don’t instantly deliver again a complete workplace suite simply because it was once there. The identical factor occurs along with your browser, your file supervisor, and each different instrument you add again.
Every selection turns into deliberate in a method that it’s not often on an ordinary set up, the place most issues arrive pre-selected and unquestioned. You begin evaluating choices, not since you’re making an attempt to optimize every part, however since you’re now conscious that each piece of software program is a choice slightly than a default. Over time, that builds a system that feels much less like one thing you inherited and extra like one thing you’ve assembled, even when the person elements are acquainted.
You discover the invisible elements as soon as they’re gone
Comfort seems to be the true function
Screenshot by Bertel King – no attribution required
Essentially the most fascinating a part of this experiment wasn’t shedding main functions. These are straightforward to switch. What stands out as a substitute are the small conveniences that disappear together with them. Issues like thumbnail previews that not seem, context menus that really feel oddly empty, and people refined “open with” recommendations that used to information you with out demanding consideration. None of those is crucial by itself, however collectively they create a way of move that you simply solely acknowledge as soon as it’s lacking.
With out them, each motion takes just a bit extra effort. You click on extra, suppose extra, and hesitate extra, not as a result of the system is failing, however as a result of it has stopped anticipating what you need. That shift is refined, nevertheless it adjustments how your entire desktop feels to make use of.
Including issues again turns into completely different
This time, every part has to justify itself
Ultimately, you begin reinstalling a few of what you eliminated, however the mindset has modified by that time. You’re not including issues again as a result of they belong there by default. You’re including them as a result of they clear up a particular drawback or take away a particular frustration.
An archive supervisor returns as a result of coping with compressed recordsdata with out one is just not value it. A picture viewer comes again since you truly use it. A media participant earns its place as a result of silence will get outdated shortly.
What doesn’t come again are the functions that by no means actually mattered within the first place. With out the idea that they need to be there, it turns into a lot simpler to depart them out. The outcome isn’t a superbly minimal system, however it’s a extra intentional one.
Minimal doesn’t imply higher, simply extra revealing
Operating a closely stripped-down Ubuntu system isn’t notably sensible. It removes comfort, introduces friction, and sometimes makes easy duties really feel extra difficult than they must be. On the identical time, it exposes one thing that’s straightforward to overlook in a totally featured setup. Most of what we consider as “the system” is definitely a layer of considerate defaults designed to maintain issues transferring easily. While you take away these defaults, you’re left with one thing extra direct, but additionally much less forgiving.
That trade-off isn’t value it for on a regular basis use, however it’s helpful as a method of understanding how your system truly works and what elements of it you genuinely depend on. I didn’t find yourself protecting a totally minimal setup, and that was by no means actually the purpose. What I ended up with was a system the place each software had a motive to be there, and the place the absence of one thing truly meant one thing as a substitute of going unnoticed.
