Hello all,
I just started using DietPi and am loving its simplicity and small footprint. Anyway I have 3 raspberry Pis running it now.
I am also running an x86/64 running Ubuntu server. It is my Jellyfin/Nextcloud server. I am wondering about DietPi on x86 as a native OS. I see a post from a long time ago saying that it will never happen but I see what seems to be a native download on the download page. Is this a solid distribution? The comparison page shows DietPi x86 vs Debian x86 and the Debian system seems to be a bit smaller of a footprint. Why is this? It seems to stomp the others on Arm. Or is the comparison using the VM?
How would DietPi x86 compare to Ubuntu Server?
Anyway, I would love to see more information about DietPi on x86 processor. Any help would be much appreciated as I would like to make the transition but I only recently got Ubuntu all set up the way I like but would rather it be DietPi if it is stable and simple like DietPi on Arm.
Welcome to our community
I guess @MichaIng could explain quite in detail why our x86 image is bigger compare to plain Dabian. 
On the comparison page, the Debian server image is compared to our UEFI installer image, which contains Clonezilla Live, with full Ubuntu base system underneath. If you look at the used disk space, installed packages, running services etc, the DietPi image is actually smaller.
A better comparison of the download size is given when looking at the BIOS x86 images, which have around 200 MiB (depending on Debian version): Index of /downloads/images
Adding a feature that a DietPi can install itself onto another drive is outstanding, but ideas exist already. That would dramatically reduce the size of the installer images.
Thanks for the replies.
When you say “full Ubuntu base” does that mean it hasn’t been on a Diet?
My idea of a small footprint isn’t the install size so much as ram and cpu.
Do you think DietPi x86 would be lighter weight than Ubuntu server?
Oh, and do you mean that clonezilla isn’t not on the Bios but only the UEFI version?
On an empty system, DietPi might be more lightweight. However the real load is generated by your apps running.
We only use Clonezilla as tool to install DietPi on your system. It is not part of the final system running.
This is just the OS that runs the installer, not DietPi itself. And yes, Clonezilla Live itself is not really on a diet, they use a mostly unmodified Ubuntu server image. However, it does not affect the final DietPi installation, so isn’t relevant aside of the increased download size.
We use it for both x86 installer images, so also the BIOS installer image. x86 UEFI systems cannot be flashed directly as there are hardware dependant setup steps required to make them bootable, which Clonezilla does. BIOS images can be flashed directly, so there we provide two images, one to install from e.g. a USB stick, and one to flash to the final system drive directly.
Thanks! I think I understand better now!