For some deployment settings, like STBs, it's useful to have a low disk footprint - not saying that the entire system should automatically resort to a low footprint as some of the ways can hinder development.
I've spent a little time trying to make a package of busybox (BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single small executable. It provides minimalist replacements for most of the utilities you usually find in GNU coreutils, util-linux, etc. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options than their full-featured GNU cousins; however, the options that are included provide the expected functionality and behave very much like their GNU counterparts.) for Mer that is usable to pick and choose what tools busybox should replace. As an example comparison, I've taken http://releases.merproject.org/releases/0.20120120.1/kickstarts/mer-core-i586-base.ks and made a version that uses busybox and one that doesn't. non-busybox base: 117723476 bytes uncompressed (125mb approx), 42325108 bytes compressed (tar.gz) (41mb approx) busybox base: 100345715 bytes uncompresed (105mb approx), 35444762 bytes compressed (tar.gz) (34mb approx) There is however still low-hanging fruit to sort out to bring disk footprint even lower (from busybox base) / # rpm -qa --queryformat '%{name}-%{version}-%{release} %{size}\n' | sort -k 2 -n basesystem-8.1-1.2 0 busybox-symlinks-bzip2-1.19.3-42.1 0 busybox-symlinks-coreutils-1.19.3-42.1 0 busybox-symlinks-findutils-1.19.3-42.1 0 busybox-symlinks-grep-1.19.3-42.1 0 busybox-symlinks-gzip-1.19.3-42.1 0 busybox-symlinks-module-init-tools-1.19.3-42.1 0 busybox-symlinks-procps-1.19.3-42.1 0 busybox-symlinks-sed-1.19.3-42.1 0 busybox-symlinks-shell-1.19.3-42.1 0 busybox-symlinks-time-1.19.3-42.1 0 busybox-symlinks-util-linux-1.19.3-42.1 0 filesystem-2.4.31-1.3 0 fontpackages-filesystem-1.44-1.2 0 mer-release-0.2011-1.1 114 rootfiles-8.1-1.2 620 mkdevnodes-0.2-1.6 7356 boardname-0.7-1.6 10336 lsb-release-4.0-1.4 15929 libattr-2.4.46-1.7 16680 systemd-sysv-37-1.6 17987 nss-sysinit-3.12.10-1.14 29365 libacl-2.2.51-1.6 30660 libffi-3.0.9-1.6 34403 popt-1.16-1.6 45349 file-5.04-1.7 53503 libcap-2.19-1.6 56092 bzip2-libs-1.0.6-1.6 70496 libusb-0.1.12-1.6 75556 libudev-172-1.7 81859 elfutils-libelf-0.152-1.9 87624 pth-2.0.7-1.6 102900 usbutils-0.86-1.6 117371 zlib-1.2.5-1.31 120856 satsolver-tools-0.17.2-1.6 121275 pacrunner-0.3-1.8 129969 libgcc-4.6.3-1.20 132564 xdg-user-dirs-0.12-1.6 133805 gamin-0.1.10-1.10 147555 ncurses-5.9-1.6 150044 curl-7.22.0-1.6 152317 pkgconfig-0.25-1.6 154584 liblua-5.1.4-1.6 180728 expat-2.0.1-1.6 185652 deltarpm-3.5-1.6 199574 MAKEDEV-3.24-1.6 214603 ncurses-base-5.9-1.6 228619 xz-libs-5.0.3-1.10 229410 nspr-4.8.8-1.6 264792 readline-5.2-1.6 269804 libgpg-error-1.10-1.4 275908 libksba-1.2.0-1.7 283125 nss-softokn-freebl-3.12.10-1.14 295542 db4-utils-4.8.30-1.6 301652 dbus-libs-1.4.14-1.6 302400 passwd-0.78-1.7 346483 libcurl-7.22.0-1.6 361072 pcre-8.11-1.10 365164 libidn-1.23-1.2 394724 libgcrypt-1.5.0-1.4 542964 libsatsolver-0.17.2-1.6 549696 pam-1.1.1-1.6 628905 setup-2.8.15-3.1 664484 gawk-3.1.5-1.18 698307 rpm-libs-4.9.1.2-1.4 713664 sqlite-3.7.9-1.6 716928 ncurses-libs-5.9-1.6 720244 udev-172-1.7 748179 shadow-utils-4.1.4.3-1.6 823654 dbus-1.4.14-1.6 832267 libstdc++-4.6.3-1.20 943413 augeas-libs-0.8.1-1.6 950942 busybox-1.19.3-42.1 996712 rpm-4.9.1.2-1.4 1394314 prelink-0.4.2-1.6 1445458 db4-4.8.30-1.6 1572023 shared-mime-info-0.91-1.7 1769922 libuser-0.57.3-1.7 1771789 tzdata-2011e-1.2 1905154 file-libs-5.04-1.7 2478574 glib2-2.30.2-1.8 2807200 systemd-37-1.6 2854923 nss-3.12.10-1.14 2934157 v8-2.4.8-1.6 3503540 openssl-1.0.0c-1.12 3604903 hwdata-0.234-1.1 4045184 zypper-1.6.15-1.6 4532254 libxml2-2.7.8-1.6 4670066 gnupg2-2.0.4-1.8 5532451 libzypp-9.10.2-1.6 6692626 glibc-2.13-1.31 11128118 glibc-common-2.13-1.31 15202355 - such as removing pkg-config, the upcoming gamin removal, replacing gawk with busybox, trim glibc-common, replacements for shadow-utils, etc. If anyone is interested to see the kickstart, see http://pastie.org/3248513 , the packages are at http://webui-ci.tspre.org/ -> projects -> home:Admin:busybox (setup and busybox was modified) BR Carsten Munk
