Rants from the Ballmer Peak 
The problem with Linux packages
$ apt-get install asciidoc
…
Recommended packages:
- sbcl lisp-compiler
The following NEW packages will be installed:
- asciidoc cl-asdf clisp common-lisp-controller dblatex dbus defoma doc-base docbook docbook-dsssl docbook-utils docbook-xml docbook-xsl docbook-xsl-doc-html ed feynmf fontconfig-config ghostscript gsfonts gsfonts-x11 jadetex lacheck latex-beamer latex-xcolor lesstif2 libavahi-client3 libavahi-common-data libavahi-common3 libboost-regex1.42.0 libcups2 libcupsimage2 libdbus-1-3 libffcall1 libfont-freetype-perl libfontconfig1 libfreezethaw-perl libgs8 libicu44 libjasper1 libjbig2dec0 libjpeg62 libkpathsea5 liblcms1 liblqr-1-0 libltdl7 libmagick++3 libmagickcore3 libmagickwand3 libmldbm-perl libopenjpeg2 libosp5 libostyle1c2 libpaper-utils libpaper1 libplot2c2 libpng12-0 libpoppler5 libpstoedit0c2a libruby1.8 libsgmls-perl libsigsegv0 libsource-highlight-common libsource-highlight3 libsp1c2 libtiff4 libxml2-utils libxp6 libxslt1.1 lmodern luatex openjade pgf poppler-data poppler-utils preview-latex-style prosper ps2eps pstoedit purifyeps realpath ruby ruby1.8 sgml-data sgmlspl source-highlight sp tex-common texlive texlive-base texlive-bibtex-extra texlive-binaries texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-extra-utils texlive-font-utils texlive-fonts-recommended texlive-fonts-recommended-doc texlive-generic-recommended texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-base-doc texlive-latex-extra texlive-latex-extra-doc texlive-latex-recommended texlive-latex-recommended-doc texlive-luatex texlive-math-extra texlive-metapost texlive-metapost-doc texlive-pictures texlive-pictures-doc texlive-pstricks texlive-pstricks-doc texpower texpower-manual tipa ttf-dejavu-core vim-addon-manager xindy xindy-rules xmlto xpdf xsltproc
0 upgraded, 122 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 510 MB of archives.
After this operation, 924 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.
And people still think I'm a lunatic when I tell them to build statically linked binaries since that will increase the binary footprint… the same people who happily install gigabytes of optional dependencies without a blink. Somehow I feel sorry for the lisp-compiler package to not have hopped on the bloat bandwagon.
UPDATE: Yes, I know you can install asciidoc without all that bloat. No, I'm not advocating to statically link against texlive. Yes, 99% of users stick to apt-get's defaults (or any software, really) and install packages they won't ever use.
$ nuke sprawling-bloat --from-orbit -bash: nuke: command not found