[galleywest200]

> Do the popular Linux distributions for both desktop and server environments provide such a list?

Yes, this is common. You are generally given the option at install how "minimal" you wish to go (do you even want a GUI installed, etc). These are often listed on the distributions website.

For example here is a few from Arch:

- Base (bare minimum) install: https://archlinux.org/packages/core/any/base/

- Base-devel (what you need to run makepkg): https://archlinux.org/packages/core/any/base-devel/