[wisty]

tl;dr

Linux is getting to be a mess, with all kinds of dependencies.

I guess it really comes down to your distro (since Linux is just the kernel, it's the distro which adds in all the bits). He's complaining about using RHEL and Ubuntu on a router. I think those are meant to be run on big servers. I'd guess Slackware and Gentoo are better bets for running a small server. There are also distros designed to be used on routers, if that's what you're after.

Big distros are big. They sometimes have a few bits which are over-engineered, because over-engineering makes sense to the people who join GUIs together.

[darklajid]

Speaking as someone who has a couple of legacy servers running Gentoo: Don't do that.

Usually there's no need to have a compiler on a production machine and certainly not on a router. Unless, well, your package manager wants one. Yes, I know that you can have binary packages for Gentoo, but that kind of defeats the point.

I haven't found a serious distribution that doesn't allow you to install a stripped down system and go from there.

[nodata]

Fedora is constantly working to reduce dependencies. They seem to be doing quite a good job.

[JonAtkinson]

Can you provide any links or sources which support this? I'm genuinely interested in how the Fedora people are tackling such a problem.