"Linux is Bloated"

[Searching_ _ _]

-{ Quote: "Linus Torvalds, founder of the Linux kernel, made a startling comment at LinuxCon in Portland, Ore., on Monday: "Linux is bloated." While the open-source community has long pointed the finger at Microsoft's Windows as bloated, it appears that with success has come added heft, heft that makes Linux "huge and scary now," according to Torvalds." }-
Cnet Article (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10358024-16.html)

[lewmur]

-{ Quote: "Cnet Article (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10358024-16.html)" }-
Yeah. Slitaz takes a whole 30mb. :o

[cortez]

If you want un-bloated use the Tinycore live CD with Opera on it and use about 16 megabytes total!!

[chronomatic]

On the bright side, us Linux users can do something about the bloat. We can compile our own kernels and omit modules we don't need, for instance. Or we can use minimalist distros, etc.. We have complete control over everything.

Windows, and even OS X users, are just stuck with the defaults.

[Nick Rhodes]

-{ Quote: "Yeah. Slitaz takes a whole 30mb. :o" }-

-{ Quote: "If you want un-bloated use the Tinycore live CD with Opera on it and use about 16 megabytes total!!" }-

Linus is referring to the Linux kernel and then the full kernel with all the modules and options.

It is quite easy to build a super slim kernel (and like used in slim distros like both you guys mention), not forgetting the specialised kernels for hardware devices like routers and storage devices :).

[Gullible Jones]

IMHO the current problem with Linux isn't so much bloat as bugs. Features are being stuffed into the "stable" kernel very quickly and with little regression testing, resulting in... well... regressions.

[Windchild]

Linus likes big words. I don't think he meant that the kernel is bloated as compared to Windows NT or something like that. As I see it, he's just saying it's been a long while and Linux now has tons of features, meaning it's gotten large - it's come far from where it started at way back when Linus was a student. Of course, the press tries to rip some headlines out of it. ;D

[NormanF]

Its not bloated. The kernel has to support new hardware and make it easier to run today's computers. There are some Linux OS versions like XFCE and LXDE offered to those looking at less footprint on the desktop. "Bloat" is in the eye of the beholder. ;)