hm. i am not a developer;or a tinkerer, even.. but if i were interested in slimming down the kernel-and i am not,as long as my hardware can handle it- i would look over my shoulder, for older,less over-developed things.. these are almost per definition smaller.. no need to re-invent the wheel, imho..if it works, it serves its purpose,lol. but i agree that all present-day iso`s are ridiculous overkill; almost all come with an office suite. and that awful firefox. after installing, your first task is to launch a terminal, and do some serious purging.a lot of it.