A "green" distro of Ubuntu?

[Alex]

On Sat, Jul 2, 2011 at 9:49 AM, Richard Owlett <rowlett at pcnetinc.com> wrote:
> Though Kermit might disagree, the subject line is ONLY slightly "tongue in
> cheek".
>
> I'm a Windows(tm) user tired of *BLOAT* who remembers vacuum tubes and
> 026's. An internet acquaintance knowing my needs and perspectives pointed me
> to Ubuntu as an appropriate version of Linux. I downloaded the .iso of a
> 'live cd' (10.?) which I found "bloated". The user experience was ok, though
> I'm not sure if the good features I saw were Ubuntu specific or due to
> Debian heritage.

Xubuntu or Fedora XFCE Spin?
http://xubuntu.org/
http://spins.fedoraproject.org/xfce/

If THAT is "too bloated" for you, Lubuntu or Fedora LXDE Spin is about
as lightweight as you can get without being useless.
http://lubuntu.net/
http://spins.fedoraproject.org/lxde/


> A *major constraint* is I'm restricted to dial-up access. I understand that
> connectivity using a USB modem will have it's issues, but that is one time
> problem. I have very limited access to a wide-band connection at another
> location with my laptop.
I don't see how that is a MAJOR constraint. I downloaded Linux ISOs
over dial-up a few years ago, it just took a long time. Just use wget
so you can resume it.

> The desired distro shall only have:
> kernel
You appear to under-estimate the size of the kernel alone

> GUI
Xorg is huge as well.

> minimal browser
Unless you're planning to use Lynx, there is no point in a "minimal
browser". Just use Firefox or Chrome <_<

> simple text editor {notepad suffices for >90% of my needs}
GNU Nano?

> what's required to download/update apps
dpkg alone is ~40MB.

> the *minimum* of other software to make an operable system
If something is installed  by default that you don't need, uninstall it?

> The result should be significantly smaller than Win 3.1 {most of which I
> never used)

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Why the heck would you want something that tiny? If
you're going to say for "bandwidth reasons", consider:
* Assuming you have really horrible dial-up running at 2.0KB/s, and
you stay connected for 8 hours a day, it should only take a little
over a week to download a CD-ROM image.
* If you stay connected 24/7, it'll take less than 4 days, even at 2KB/s.
* The max speed of dialup is about 7KB/s, at which rate it'd take a
little over a day.