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by GuB-42 1081 days ago
Debian mini.iso, with the option to not install additional packages is also pretty minimal, and text-only. You can install your desktop later via apt.

Ubuntu used to have a mini.iso too, and it was almost indistinguishable from its Debian counterpart. Both distros relied on apt, and since these minimal installs essentially just contained whatever was needed to have a working system running apt, they were essentially the same, with slightly different default settings. The biggest difference was the release cycle and the attitude towards proprietary software.