"In this day and age of net connectivity", you can just down load the (6.5M) boot.iso from os/images/ and then do an FTP install to get just the bits you need.
On the other hand that's not really reducing the Bloat, just moving it to somewhere that may be faster for you...
Try http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/ I currently backup 43 machines on to one 300GB HDD (which is then backed up to tape, but you could raid disks if that was your final target). I am storing ~1.3TB worth of backups in this thanks to the pooling of common files and compression. BackupPC can use rsync over ssh to do it's backups so even a "full" backup is quick and has less load than our previous branded tape-based backup and I am more confident about the security of it too.
With blackout periods and the ability to ignore such periods when a machine has been off for too long, backups happen when is good for you and can ensure that you get a backup if a machine has been off (or off-network) for a while.
BackupPC has proved itself to be a lot more reliable and faster than the several commercial tape based systems I have tried. (Not to mention cheaper - and that's including the cost of a dedicated server to run it on!).
To continue your analogies, the house address or phone number is equivelent to your IP address, which you get free with your connection. If you wanted a PO Box number or premium rate phone number which redirect to your home address / home phone then you would have to pay for them and these are more akin to a domain name.
Using a basic RedHat installation, you can use up2date as soon as RedHat provide the next version. Or just download and rpm -Uvh the RPMs directly from mozilla.
Maybe more difficult if you have trouble using a keyboard, but you get the option to use NutScrape, Opera, Lynx, or many other browsers if you prefer.
Slashdot Mirror
"In this day and age of net connectivity", you can just down load the (6.5M) boot.iso from os/images/ and then do an FTP install to get just the bits you need.
On the other hand that's not really reducing the Bloat, just moving it to somewhere that may be faster for you...
Try http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
I currently backup 43 machines on to one 300GB HDD (which is then backed up to tape, but you could raid disks if that was your final target).
I am storing ~1.3TB worth of backups in this thanks to the pooling of common files and compression.
BackupPC can use rsync over ssh to do it's backups so even a "full" backup is quick and has less load than our previous branded tape-based backup and I am more confident about the security of it too.
With blackout periods and the ability to ignore such periods when a machine has been off for too long, backups happen when is good for you and can ensure that you get a backup if a machine has been off (or off-network) for a while.
BackupPC has proved itself to be a lot more reliable and faster than the several commercial tape based systems I have tried. (Not to mention cheaper - and that's including the cost of a dedicated server to run it on!).
To continue your analogies, the house address or phone number is equivelent to your IP address, which you get free with your connection. If you wanted a PO Box number or premium rate phone number which redirect to your home address / home phone then you would have to pay for them and these are more akin to a domain name.
$ apt-get upgrade
Mozilla upgraded. What's the problem?
If you really wanted you could add it to the menus and call it "Linux Update".
I use apt-get for RPMs http://freshrpms.net/apt/
Using a basic RedHat installation, you can use up2date as soon as RedHat provide the next version. Or just download and rpm -Uvh the RPMs directly from mozilla.
Maybe more difficult if you have trouble using a keyboard, but you get the option to use NutScrape, Opera, Lynx, or many other browsers if you prefer.