Ubuntu 18.04 Minimal Spin Down To ~30MB Compressed / ~81MB On Disk

For those using Ubuntu Minimal images for containers/Docker, assembling your own base distribution, setting up an embedded Linux environment, or related use-cases, the minimal images for the upcoming Ubuntu 18.04 LTS release will be even smaller.

The compressed minimal image of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS in its current form is down to 30MB compressed or 81MB when uncompressed and on-disk. This is comprised of about 100 Debian packages. This current size of the 18.04 LTS base is 53% smaller than Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and about 26% smaller than Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

Ubuntu developers have been trimming up the minimal image size by removing more documentation and man pages, dropping locales, etc.

Dustin Kirkland, the VP of Product Development at Canonical, is now soliciting feedback from those using these Ubuntu minimal images. He's interested in hearing about your feedback and any novel ideas for making the Ubuntu base image even smaller. More details on the 18.04 minimal image effort via this blog post.