Jai,

I like this second thought you expressed.

When building from CentOS CD/DVD it is common to build servers first with Gnome as for DeskTop use.  After fully configured,  we always change them down to run level 3 for server mode use.  The extra programs on the hard disk are not usually an issue to most Enterprise IT folks.

If we expect the Enterprise-IT person to build the OS from distro, then we need to document
the required build details, then when we get our first script to examine it, we can survey
the landscape and see if all the right stuff is present.

If we expect to fine-tune a minimum image size, then we must do the 2->3->2->3->
dance until we really shrink it down.   However, I feel that decision can be held
until we see a complete running SER  with all goodies that can be dropped in on top
of a known OS baseline.

Right after new year, I will build two CentOS-5.1 machines and put them on public IP for
examination and tinkering by all.  This should be helpful for developers to confirm
what is available in standard distro.

..mike..