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I'm running the MATE 20.04 installer and through most of the process it is removing files. I suspect this is a general issue rather than one specific to MATE but I mention MATE to be complete.

For example :

Completely removing libreoffice help

I have checked 'minimal install' so perhaps that's why? If so, is this the usual process? I would expect that a minimal install would download fewer file. I choose it to have a faster install but perhaps this is not the right approach.

Stephen Boston
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    The fastest install method is to install everything, then if 'minimal install' is selected, remove the files in the appropriate list for the minimal install. This is expected, and is faster for all users than installing by package for all users (installing a smaller set for you, and all for other users; install isn't done on a by-package basis). – guiverc Jul 09 '20 at 06:55
  • @guiverc Ah. The system is compressed into a single blob that then has to be pruned. So I suppose nearly everyone wants to install everything so that a prep of two blobs would not be cost-effective. Funny. I've been using 'minimal install' for some time and never noticed. I'll prune manually in future because a lot of what I see removed I actually want. Thanks. – Stephen Boston Jul 09 '20 at 07:12
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    Especially for Ubuntu-MATE, Martin Wimpress has explained the process in various Podcasts (years ago now). Yes minimal is slower as it's got the added package removal step. – guiverc Jul 09 '20 at 07:14

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The 'minimal' install options was added via a 'list of packages to remove'.

The fastest install is to install everything (which isn't installed package by package for speed reasons), then if minimal install was selected, the packages on the minimal list are removed. Thus a minimal install option is a full-install, followed by removal of list of packages.

Martin Wimpress (Ubuntu-MATE project lead) has spoken about this a number of times on Podcasts, often because he was asked questions about it, but that was years ago so sorry, I didn't look them up.

guiverc
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  • This may have side-effect with networking issues as I have seen while installed Ubuntu MATE 18.04 LTS from mini.iso yesterday. You may want to add the installation of minimal MATE package to the question - sudo apt-get install ubuntu-mate-core^ . It have less dependencies. – N0rbert Jul 09 '20 at 07:41
  • @N0rbert, I don't see it as really applicable to the question (at least as I read it), but I'm also not qualified with minimal installs anyway (I don't have need to use them). – guiverc Jul 09 '20 at 07:58
  • @N0rbert I don't understand. How can I install the core without having at least apt? Is this something I can do from the live cd session? – Stephen Boston Jul 09 '20 at 09:59
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    @StephenBoston let's assume that you have downloaded special minimal mini.iso installer file, then it connects to the internet and downloads essential parts of the Ubuntu system, so installation ends with minimal (but functional system) or with user-selected set of packages (desktops such as MATE are presented in the list). If you have selected minimal set of packages - you can simply install whatever you want by using APT. I would recommend you to check the method on fresh VM. It is really exciting especially if you use snapshots. – N0rbert Jul 09 '20 at 10:15
  • I am also a fan of the mini iso. – Organic Marble Jul 09 '20 at 12:44