To begin with I am a minimalist.
I come from Puppy Linux background.
M4 Linux is the next best.
I wanted to see which one gives me more option with less demand.
Answer before plunging was Debian GNOME before even beginning the Test.
I gave the minimum to MANJARO.
1. 12.6GB basic installation OK but UPDATES failed.
2. Take 500MB out of Debian and feed it to MANJARO.
500MB was the minimum I used for Puppy on a USB stick.
This means I have broken the Debian, which means I have to Reinstall Debian.
I am born Scientific Investigatior on steroid after retirement.
3. At 13.6GB MANJARO can UPDATE but cannot install LibreOffice.
That means 4 Reinstallations.
4. I went up to 15.6GB for MANJARO and gave up. Still I cannot get Blender my Ultimate Test fails.
To get LibreOffice one has to pick at install time not after.
After installation LibreOffice failed.
I used GNOME. If I used KDE it would be a disaster.
5. Bottom Line.
GNOME takes 6.1GH for BASIC and I have 6GB to spare ( Total 12.1GB). LibreOffice is akready there.
I installed all what I want.
GIMP.
Audacity
VLC
AbiWord
Catfish
BlueFish
STACER
Gparted
I have 3.4GB to spare.
I am going to add IceWM and Enlightenment Desktops.
I used Testing Forky Image.
I have done this before with Trixie and installed Blender in addition.
Blender is still not available in Forky.
I stick with GNOME but BIG LINUX with KDE Dedktop is a revealation.
There is another big problem with all ARCH derivatives.
One cannot remove the failed installation files after failed installation of Blender.
System gradually get choked and I get a message no room available and no way to temove the redundant stuff.
If you are jumping into ARCH pleae know yours owj as well as distribution's limitations.
By the way, Best ARCH Derivatives is the beautiful BlueStar Linux Distribution.
