> The only issue I have with tasksel, is that sometimes I wish a more > minimal environment.
Then don't use tasksel to install package(s). One can, however, use tasksel to list its tasks, and from those, the corresponding package(s), and in turn, from those, the dependencies and recommends thereof. E.g.: $ tasksel --list-tasks u desktop Debian desktop environment u gnome-desktop GNOME u xfce-desktop Xfce u gnome-flashback-desktop GNOME Flashback u kde-desktop KDE Plasma u cinnamon-desktop Cinnamon u mate-desktop MATE u lxde-desktop LXDE u lxqt-desktop LXQt u web-server web server u ssh-server SSH server u laptop laptop $ tasksel --task-packages desktop task-desktop $ apt-cache show task-desktop | grep -E '^(Depends|Recommends):' Depends: tasksel (= 3.73), xorg, xserver-xorg-video-all, xserver-xorg-input-all, desktop-base Recommends: task-gnome-desktop | task-xfce-desktop | task-kde-desktop | task-lxde-desktop | task-gnome-flashback-desktop | task-cinnamon-desktop | task-mate-desktop | task-lxqt-desktop, xdg-utils, fonts-symbola, avahi-daemon, libnss-mdns, anacron, eject, iw, alsa-utils, sudo, firefox | firefox-esr, cups $ And one can continue to drill down to determine just what package(s) one wants to install, and of course the APT system will also handle dependencies thereof. So, e.g.: $ apt-cache show task-gnome-desktop | grep -E '^(Depends|Recommends):' Depends: tasksel (= 3.73), task-desktop, gnome-core Recommends: gnome, synaptic, libreoffice-gnome, libreoffice-writer, libreoffice-calc, libreoffice-impress, libreoffice-help-en-us, mythes-en-us, hunspell-en-us, hyphen-en-us, network-manager-gnome $ So, in such case, one might just want to install, e.g. gnome-core And most users, when installing, generally don't want to be overwhelmed with excessive choices, and when choosing to install a desktop environment, generally expect it will be quite complete and cover all they expect and will likely find they want associated with that, and not have to be hunting down additional package to install to give them a (relatively) complete desktop environment. For those that want less, they can install more specifically/limited, as I suggested. And if the default were much more minimal on the tasksel selection, there'd be lots of complaints about "missing" stuff they didn't get that they expected to be installed and working with their desktop environment selection from tasksel. And if tasksel gave lots more options at installation time, plenty of folks would complain about that.
