Size in loc of common software
Bloat is everywhere, in 2018 I started my journey on debloating my digital
life, so far I mostly use linux as my main OS (the mostly is due to uni
stuff I don't want and/or have time to deal with), I don't use a desktop environment,
got rid of systemd, pulseaudio and polkit just to name a few. I could go on
about how I debloated most of my computing life but that is not the goal
of this article, that is I recently started to wonder: how much bloat is really
there?
In order to answer that question I rolled up my sleeves and with the mighty
power of post-its, git and scc I cloned the repositories of many
common programs in order to check their bloat suckless style, with
lines of code. Let's get to the data.
Init systems
| Name |
loc |
| systemd |
722K |
| OpenRC |
21K |
| s6 |
20K |
| runit |
12K |
| sysVinit |
9K |
Logging daemons
Technically systemd includes its own logging daemon but here is omitted.
| Name |
loc |
| rsyslog |
157K |
| socklog |
5.6K |
| metalog |
2.5K |
Network
Generic network management programs.
| Name |
loc |
| wpa_supplicant |
555K |
| kea |
486K |
| NetworkManager |
429K |
| ModemManager |
194K |
| connman |
103K |
| (e)iwd |
86K |
| dhcpcd |
41K |
Music players
| Name |
loc |
| mpd |
102K |
| cmus |
42K |
| moc(p) |
35K |
| ncmpcpp |
25K |
| herrie |
7.4K |
Text editors
Don't tell me you saw that one coming.
| Name |
loc |
| vim |
931K |
| neovim |
771K |
| vis |
109K |
| kakoune |
31K |
| micro |
29K |
| nano |
17K |
Build systems
| Name |
loc |
| cmake |
854K |
| tup |
271K |
| meson |
107K |
| GNU make |
34K |
| ninja |
20K |
| samurai |
3.7K |
Shells (POSIX or not)
| Name |
loc |
| bash |
210K |
| fish |
165K |
| zsh |
119K |
| ksh93 |
72K |
| tcsh |
65K |
| mksh |
30K |
| ash |
21K |
| dash |
13K |
Boot loaders/managers
| Name |
loc |
| CloverBoot |
1.8M |
| GRUB |
331K |
| syslinux |
254K |
| eEFInd |
75K |
| LILO |
36K |
Display servers
Dependencies are counted two levels "deep" excluding duplicates, from
the alpine linux x86_64 package repositories.
U: Not built, protocol code not generated
B: Code generated
| Name |
loc |
dependencies |
| xorg-server |
422K |
44 |
| - |
- |
- |
| wayland + |
|
|
| wayland-protocols + |
|
|
| wlroots |
U: 97K, B:268K |
27 |
SSH servers/clients
| Name |
loc |
| dropbear |
144K |
| OpenSSH |
123K |
| TinySSH |
14K |
Terminal multiplexers
| Name |
loc |
| tmux |
132K |
| GNU screen |
36K |
| dvtm |
4.0K |
Terminal emulators
| Name |
loc |
| kitty |
114K |
| alacritty |
26K |
| wayst |
24K |
| havoc |
10K |
| wterm |
10K |
| st |
4.4K |
Kernels
| Name |
loc |
| netbsd |
40M |
| linux |
21M |
| FreeBSD |
18M |
| OpenBSD |
17M |
| DragonflyBSD |
934K |
Permission managers
| Name |
loc |
| sudo |
195K |
| polkit |
26K |
| OpenDoas |
2.9K |
| PAM |
61K |
Compilers
| Name |
loc |
| gcc |
9.0M |
| llvm |
8.0M |
| zig |
2.1M |
| rust |
856K |
| tcc |
93K |
Torrent clients
| Name |
loc |
| qBittorrent |
762K |
| transmission |
329K |
| deluge |
137K |
| rtorrent |
24K |
Web browsers
Does not include libraries, only the main repos.
| Name |
loc |
| chromium |
|
| Firefox |
27M |
| badwolf |
1.8K |
Window managers
| Name |
loc |
| awesome |
83K |
| i3 |
58K |
| openbox |
42K |
| bspwm |
12K |
| 2bwm |
3.3K |
| dwm |
2.5K |
Wayland compositors
| Name |
loc |
| weston |
117K |
| sway |
42K |
| wayfire |
27K |
| hikari |
15K |
| river |
5.9K |
Application launchers
| Name |
loc |
| rofi |
84K |
| bemenu |
6.6K |
| wofi |
4.3K |
| nwg-launchers |
3.5K |
| dmenu |
1.3K |
Device managers
NOTE: mdev is only one source file, so loc count doesn't
include anything but that file.
| Name |
loc |
| eudev |
28K |
| mdevd |
2.3K |
| smdev |
771 |
| mdev |
751 |
Initramfs generators
| Name |
loc |
| dracut |
32K |
| tinyramfs |
1.0K |
Code counters
| Name |
loc |
| scc |
19K |
| tokei |
11K |
Package managers
| Name |
loc |
| apt |
100K |
| xbps |
43K |
| pacman |
37K |
| apk |
17K |
| kiss |
1.1K |
Webservers
| Name |
loc |
| apache |
419K |
| nginx |
142K |
| lighttpd |
75K |
Syncronization and backup programs
| Name |
loc |
| borg |
236K |
| syncthing |
153K |
| rsync |
56K |
| restic |
49K |
| casync |
33K |
Others
Stuff that doesn't fit any other category (for now)
| Name |
loc |
| openssl |
894K |
| bluez |
395K |
| libressl |
384K |
| elogind |
145K |
| dbus |
126K |
| tint2 |
37K |
| lowdown |
19K |
| pass |
3.5K |
