What is a typical size for a minimal Linux server install?
Well, if you were to compile from nothing but source code and a cross compiler... the full kernel and API (libraries+headers), glibc, coreutils, gcc/binutils and a few necessary tools, you would typically be left with about a 600MB or so distro. Add to that your distro's choice of package management and default utilities you can see where your disk utilization is coming from. Micro/gutted distributions typically rip out all lib/binary debugging symbols and compile a smaller libc (such as dietlibc). They may also omit a full compile environment which sucks up a significant amount of disk space.
It is possible to compile a fully bootable x86 linux operating system in about 6MB of disk space. Make some further modifications and you can cram it in just a few hundred K of embedded flash. Take a look at tinycore/ucore linux. It is built off of fltk and I believe dietlibc (8MB with X, 6MB without).
That is a typical install size. However if you're looking for something with a very small footprint you could try:
- DSL (Damn Small Linux) ~50M
- Puppy Linux
In terms of storage available even on embedded systems, < 1 GB is hardly "big" any more. An AWS EC2 m1.small instance includes 160 GB storage -- that's more than enough for virtually any server instance you could imagine (few current configurations use more than ~10 GB, and I've yet to see one requiring > 20GB for a base installation).
You seem to think rolling a minimal install is some painful process. It really isn't. Do a minimal base installation. Add only the packages you need. It may take a few days for your system to stabilize (in the sense that you're no longer adding packages), but you'll end up with a lean build. That just works.
If you'll look under various system directories, you'll find that a number of things contribute to size. Kernel and modules (build your own statically compiled kernel), internationalization, documentation, and package repos will account for a lot. There are tools (deborphan, localepurge, etc.)
There are builds which are specifically designed for very small form factors, utilizing mudebs and the like. If you have an interest in these, explore on your own.
If you're specifically interested in reducing the size of a Debian installation, you could follow the suggestions of the ReduceDebian wiki page: http://wiki.debian.org/ReduceDebian
If you uncheck the "standard system tools" option during a debian squeeze install, it takes 380MB and installs the following 152 packages
acpi
acpi-support-base
acpid
adduser
apt
apt-utils
aptitude
base-files
base-passwd
bash
bsdmainutils
bsdutils
busybox
console-setup
console-terminus
coreutils
cpio
cron
dash
debconf
debconf-i18n
debian-archive-keyring
debianutils
diffutils
discover
discover-data
dmidecode
dmsetup
dpkg
e2fslibs
e2fsprogs
eject
findutils
gcc-4.4-base
gettext-base
gnupg
gpgv
grep
groff-base
grub-common
grub-pc
gzip
hostname
ifupdown
info
initramfs-tools
initscripts
insserv
install-info
installation-report
iproute
iptables
iputils-ping
isc-dhcp-client
isc-dhcp-common
kbd
keyboard-configuration
klibc-utils
laptop-detect
libacl1
libattr1
libblkid1
libboost-iostreams1.42.0
libbz2-1.0
libc-bin
libc6
libc6-i686
libcomerr2
libcwidget3
libdb4.8
libdevmapper1.02.1
libdiscover2
libept1
libexpat1
libfreetype6
libgcc1
libgdbm3
libklibc
liblocale-gettext-perl
liblzma2
libncurses5
libncursesw5
libnewt0.52
libnfnetlink0
libpam-modules
libpam-runtime
libpam0g
libpci3
libpopt0
libreadline6
libselinux1
libsepol1
libsigc++-2.0-0c2a
libslang2
libsqlite3-0
libss2
libssl0.9.8
libstdc++6
libtext-charwidth-perl
libtext-iconv-perl
libtext-wrapi18n-perl
libudev0
libusb-0.1-4
libuuid-perl
libuuid1
libxapian22
linux-base
linux-image-2.6-686
linux-image-2.6.32-5-686
locales
login
logrotate
lsb-base
man-db
manpages
mawk
module-init-tools
mount
nano
ncurses-base
ncurses-bin
net-tools
netbase
netcat-traditional
os-prober
passwd
pciutils
perl-base
procps
readline-common
rsyslog
sed
sensible-utils
sysv-rc
sysvinit
sysvinit-utils
tar
tasksel
tasksel-data
traceroute
tzdata
ucf
udev
usbutils
util-linux
vim-common
vim-tiny
wget
whiptail
xkb-data
xz-utils
zlib1g
That saves about 150MB of space by skipping the following 110 packages.
apt-listchanges
at
bash-completion
bc
bind9-host
bsd-mailx
ca-certificates
dc
debian-faq
dnsutils
doc-debian
doc-linux-text
exim4
exim4-base
exim4-config
exim4-daemon-light
file
ftp
geoip-database
host
iso-codes
less
libbind9-60
libbsd0
libcap2
libdb4.6
libdb4.7
libdns69
libedit2
libevent-1.4-2
libgc1c2
libgcrypt11
libgeoip1
libgnutls26
libgpg-error0
libgpgme11
libgpm2
libgssapi-krb5-2
libgssglue1
libgssrpc4
libidn11
libisc62
libisccc60
libisccfg62
libk5crypto3
libkadm5clnt-mit7
libkadm5srv-mit7
libkdb5-4
libkeyutils1
libkrb5-3
libkrb5support0
libldap-2.4-2
liblockfile1
liblwres60
libmagic1
libnfsidmap2
libpcre3
libpth20
librpcsecgss3
libsasl2-2
libsasl2-modules
libtasn1-3
libtokyocabinet8
libwrap0
libx11-6
libx11-data
libxau6
libxcb1
libxdmcp6
libxext6
libxml2
libxmuu1
lsb-release
lsof
m4
mime-support
mlocate
mutt
ncurses-term
nfs-common
openssh-blacklist
openssh-blacklist-extra
openssh-client
openssl
patch
perl
perl-modules
portmap
procmail
psmisc
python
python2.6
python2.6-minimal
python-apt
python-apt-common
python-central
python-minimal
python-reportbug
python-support
reportbug
sgml-base
tcpd
telnet
texinfo
time
w3m
wamerican
whois
xauth
xml-core