Ubuntu without pre-installed software?

[compdoc]

> For example: LibreOffice. Why?

I was once told that installing the Desktop version of Ubuntu on a server
was a lot of 'overhead' for the server, and I never knew what that meant.
Since I rarely use LibreOffice and I never use Thunderbird, etc., how could
all that extraneous software slow it down if it's not running?

Then it came to me: besides the space they take up on the drive, there's
also the maintenance of them:  the many downloads of updates, and apt having
to track all those package updates. There is overhead involved.

That last conversation here "minimal CD --> startx" got me to thinking about
how I might eliminate that overhead, so I'm learning to install a desktop on
the Server version of Ubuntu as I type this.

I think it will make for a better server.