When I installed again this week it was the first time that I noticed you could select different packages to install!
I’d always just installed the default selection then added/removed anything else after.
It was interesting to see the package groupings but even more so to see that you could select/deselect individual packages within that.
I do Java development as a job and in my spare time so it was interesting to see a Java development section.
However, from my point of view there is a lot of unnecessary stuff in there.
I don’t have the iso to hand and I can’t find a list of packages online that are included, but from what I remember there was definitely ant and some apache commons libraries amongst others.
These days Java IDEs and build servers have ant bundled with them so you don’t need to have a version of ant on the system.
Including Java libraries with the iso is unnecessary too.
If you are using ant your dependencies will be in your project and if you are using maven or gradle the dependencies will be downloaded for you.
I ended up deselecting everything apart from OpenJDK.
If we got rid of the Java libraries there would be more room on the ISO for important system packages such as wireless drivers.
Similarly, there are QT frameworks etc on the ISO. Is that a popular install option?
As far as I remember there are also Java IDEs included on the ISO but they are not ones that anyone should be using.
You might as well be using Kate and javac!
The open source version of Intellij IDEA (base for Android Studio) is a much better option.
Or eclipse or Netbeans.
However, the better IDEs are bigger in size so probably wouldn’t fit.
It raises a question though, if you are installing an O/S do you want/expect development tools for various programming languages to be installed at the same time?
Are they wasted space on the ISO?
Is there a regular review of what goes/stays on the ISO?
