Yes and no. You may be right about the amount of disk space needed, but in my line of work every package you install creates additional work: you need to get, test and install updates, you might introduce dependencies - all said and done you introduce additional complexity to your system. This - and not the disk footprint, which, i give you that, is negligeable - is the reason why i would never install an unnecessary package onto a system.

Maybe we are just coming from different environments. My main work is with AIX systems, but in big data centers and every shop below several hundred LPARs is considered small in my business. Making such an amount of systems work with the minimum administrative work possible is different than making a single home server do something.

My colleagues from the Linux department regularly have interns. Usually they come with an untouchable confidence about their Linux skills - i have downloaded and set up my laptop with Ubuntu all on my own, there is nothing i can't do - and leave with the saddening knowledge that whatever they did with their home-PC was not professional Linux-administration at all.

I hope this helps.

bakunin