LOL.
Sorry about that I haven't had my coffee and have been on the phone with bureaucrats all morning. Your post was just the outlet my aggression had been looking for
I just don't like the double standards. I mean, we all have to download things to make our systems perform the functions they are required to perform regardless of the OS we use.
I personally need a MySQL server, but I don't want the whole LAMP thing. I don't download the ubuntu server edition, I use the desktop edition. So I get the desktop Ubuntu and then download the MySQL server post install.
I admit that that is a particular piece of software that the average computer user wouldn't need, but Ubuntu does not ship with everything one would ever need and no OS should. Rather get yourself a smaller ISO download and then install the things you need separately.
Although in the case of Windows where you buy the cursed thing in a little plastic box from Incredible Connection then damnit I want all the bells and whistles as opposed to downloading it all and then I can decide what to do delete once I'm done installing and use the saved cap to increase the size of my anime porn collection
Just my 2 cents.
/me shrugs.
That pretty much sounds like Gentoo, you start with the bare essentials and then build your system the way you like it with the great How To/Install Manual on their Home Page.