I’ve installed debian on an old laptop and am wondering if the 10 gig base system size can be slimmed down by deleting unneeded files.
I ran the commands to look for any runaway logs or other obviously large files and nothing popped out.
Is there a group of folders full of stuff I don’t need or is this just the size of modern distros?
a quick place to start would be the systemd services that get automatically started when you boot your system. when i did this in the past, i would google each service that was running to determine if i needed it and remove the associated software if i decided that i didn’t.
(since you’re using debian): if it’s a fresh install, it would make more sense to start with a minimal install first like the netinstall image and then pick and chose what you want to put on top of it.
if your issue is that the distro is too bloated: there are other minimalist distro’s out there (some are based on debian) and they’ve already gone through the hassle of figuring out what the bare bones minimum is for fully functional distribution that can serve a viable daily driver.
for instance alpine has a small footprint. its designed for containers … but I think it has a DE as well