Alexander> So ... my motivations are a deep distrust and loathing when Alexander> I type: apt-get tiny-application Alexander> and I'm then asked to install six hundred and twenty four Alexander> other libraries ... Hmm... I'm not sure that *any* distro is going to make you happy then. What about if you go with 'gentoo' and do 'emerge tiny-application' and it goes off and compiles a whole bunch of libraries and installes them for you? Is that better or worse? For example, have you tried using 'f-spot' and being amazed at how much crap it installs? And it's not a huge huge program by any means. Alexander> Now, I love ubuntu - sure it is easy and easy is good Alexander> .. right ... and I've been pretty much using Debian or Alexander> Ubuntu on some machine, in some form ... since 1998 ... I've been using 'apt-get --purge autoremove' to cleanup stuff like that. Pretty darn simple. Alexander> but .. I'm always getting into trouble with the package Alexander> management system ... I'm always skimming around looking at Alexander> the more obscure installed libraries thinking "gee, no one Alexander> uses lib-foo-bar-zap" ... uninstalling it .. and then Alexander> discovering just who indeed uses lib-foo-bar-zap ... Why? Why do you care? Are you short on disk space? Or just compulsivley anal about knowing why a library is on there? *grin* Alexander> So .. when it comes to my known style of system management Alexander> ... easy isn't good .. it merely leads my inevitable Alexander> tinkering into trouble. I can see that. Alexander> THUS - if I make the system "100% tinkering" .. well - I'll Alexander> have to tow a straighter line .. if I want the darned thing Alexander> to work! Alexander> make sense? Not really. :] If you want a system that works (which I agree with!) it might make sense to build a base system which is stable and only gets security updates, then run a virtual machine (or two or thre...) in which you have your playground to test out new apps, etc. Alexander> I did try gentoo once ... but ... I wasn't happy ... again Alexander> probably due to my irresistible "lets tinker" nature... An urge to 'Let's tinker' is both a good and bad thing for a SysAdmin to have. And why we hate users. :] Sorry, no real answers, because I don't think you're going to find one that makes you happy. The urge to cleanup is nice, but counter productive unless your on an embedded device which can't handle all the excess libraries. It's not an easy battle to solve. John