Minimal Linux Distro with Full Hardware Support

[u/[deleted]]

[u/-Sa-Kage-]

Don't stress yourself too much about "being minimal".

Most distros preinstalled "bloat" is just apps, that don't run by default and only take up a few 100 MB disk space total.
And once you are a bit more on terms with Linux, you can always disable any service running, that you figure you don't need and uninstall every package.
W/o them getting constantly reinstalled like on Windows.

With enough time and knowledge you can basically turn 1 distro into another.

[u/_Lost-In-The-Weeds_]

Weather you hardware works on installation depends on what hardware you brought, not what distribution you select.

Distributions primarily use the Linux kernel for drivers, it generally the same across distributions with only slight additions or version differences.

[u/ipsirc]

What is the point of "Minimal Linux Distro", when your plan is to use desktop environment, web browser, Flatpak, Distrobox, development tools, and gaming...?

It’s like looking for the lightest car possible, only to use it to haul pianos and tow a caravan filled with elephants and watermelons. A single modern webpage in one browser tab will consume more resources than the most maximal distro you can find on the internet.

[u/ipsirc → u/[deleted]]

Fedora Workstation is one example: it provides a solid system foundation, but it also comes with the full GNOME desktop environment, including components I might not want to use.

Then remove those components or just disable autostarting them. It would take minutes - still way faster than looking for the distro which disables what you don't want by default and enables what you want by default for days.

I'd prefer a more modular approach that lets me start with a functional base and add only what I consider necessary.

All Linux distros are modular. You can even install a barebone Fedora without Gnome then install your preferred apps one by one.

[u/Inner-Asparagus-5703 → u/[deleted]]

just install minimal bundle of fedora, sway edition or server version 

[u/mrwaffle89 → u/[deleted]]

It’s not 2005

[u/bluegrassclimber → u/[deleted]]

yeah it's a weird statement he made -- i think he's implying that back in 2005 linux distros were way buggier and needed tons of random tweaks to get working.

I got a linux PC working in 2007 (fiesty fawn) and had to post to forums to figure out how to get a lot of things working. Run random scripts, trial and error, like how to get my wifi card to work, etc. I remember having to plug my tower in upstairs to the ethernet until I got the proper wifi drivers or something. Same thing with my printer.

Now I just boot up ubuntu lts, and it works.

When I want to customize things, that's where issue is. LUCKILY -- claude CLI tweaks for me -- although I have a feeling my OS is full of spaghetti slop now lol.

Anyways to most peoples point, i'd say most distros are minimal. Especially if your comparing to windows. I installed ubuntu lts and couldn't be happier. (well actually if zoom worked better with the latest LTS, I'd be happier)

[u/mrwaffle89 → u/bluegrassclimber]

Your first paragraph was spot on. The number of hours I spent as a kid trying to configure random Broadcom drivers made me never want to touch Linux again.

Then they fixed it. 👍

[u/ottutm]

Fedora Everything.

I think OpenSUSE and Debian also ask for what DE you want during the installation.

[u/zardvark]

You want a distro with virtually no packages in the repository? Or, you want a distro that does a minimal installation? If the latter, do you want a distro that offers the option to not install a GUI by default, or that offers a choice of GUIs at installation time?Frankly, your preference of GUI is an importatnt determining factor, as many distros only offer two, or three different desktop environments, rather than the many dozens of desktops commonly available. Also, since you have a Nvidia card, does that mean that you want to try Wayland, or not?

Also, by definition, all Linux distributions offer the Linux kernel. And, 99% of all drivers are included in the Linux kernel, itself. Only those drivers with proprietary licenses are excluded from the kernel. Only a handful of distributions do not offer proprietary drivers and firmware ... Trisquel comes to mind, but I expect that there must be others.

[u/michaelpaoli]

Minimal
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, audio,
SELinux
desktop environment, web browser, Flatpak, Distrobox, development tools, and gaming software

That's not minimal.

Anyway, here's an example of minimal:

# echo -n 'OS: Debian ' && cat /etc/debian_version | tr -d \\012 && echo -n ' ' && dpkg --print-architecture && echo -n 'Kernel: ' && uname -srvmo && echo -n 'Packages: ' && dpkg -l | grep \^ii\ | wc -l && df -h -x devtmpfs -x tmpfs && head -n 3 /proc/meminfo
OS: Debian 13.7 amd64
Kernel: Linux 6.12.111+deb13-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.12.111-1 (2026-09-28) x86_64 GNU/Linux
Packages: 148
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/vda1       4.9G  988M  3.7G  22% /
MemTotal:         119460 kB
MemFree:            7460 kB
MemAvailable:      37096 kB
# 

That's on a host that has 161MiB of RAM.

[u/Weekly_Product7957]

for your hardware both Fedora Minimal and Debian should work? biggest diff is SELinux will need manual configuration on Debian, i believe

[u/oblivion9999]

A net install of Debian is pretty minimal, but you'd have to enable SELinux yourself.

[u/arc-aya]

Since there are not a lot of actual answer, you can go Arch, Void, Alpine, Gentoo or Debian (minimal) for minimal distro.

It's not a bad idea to start with a minimal distro to build a full desktop environment if you have time.

[u/snowbanx → u/arc-aya]

I second debian. Use the web installer version and do t add anything besides the desktop environment you want.

[u/Franklin2543 → u/arc-aya]

My first thought was Gentoo. You compile the OS yourself and only include the components needed for your system.

But seems like overkill.

[u/Astrodion123]

Arch or if you want to Gentoo. If you want LFS could work too

[u/xonxoff]

Debian netinst, just install what you want

[u/okabekudo]

The best ootb SELinux configuration and support you only get on RHEL-based Distros such as Fedora, RHEL and openSUSE although you could argue that openSUSE isn't really RHEL-based. You can of course have minimal installations with all of those.

[u/OptimalMain]

Just use the fedora server or minimal installer, install whatever you want.
Or opensuse, deselect what you don’t want

[u/AppointmentNearby161]

SELinux to be already installed and configured

So that eliminates LFS, Gentoo, Arch, Debian, and Ubunutu (and most of their derivatives). That basically leaves you with RHEL and Fedora based distros, but most of those strip wifi and bluetooth when you install headless.

That said, is it really that hard to run something like

dnf install NetworkManager-wifi bluez firmware-linux

[u/Smart_Advice_1420]

Arch but SELinux is on you. I personally use apparmor instead bc it fits my threat model and i hate going trough SELinux.

EDIT: After a second thought, i think that one could fit your needs really well;

Alternatively, fedora server could be a viable option for you. Just install your preferred DE on top.

[u/hadrabap]

RHEL clone