I only want a tiling window manager, a couple of browsers, Sublime Text 3, and access to the internet.
My personal opinion is that i3 rocks, and and that I don't need all of Ubuntu or Xubuntu. I don't even need Rhythmbox or Thunar. Just give me the bare bones of a modern Linux upon which I can install i3 and add just the few things I need.
You would be better off using an Alternate Lubuntu CD or netinstall (mini.iso) Both have a text-based installer with the option to 'Install a command line system', then go from there.
Well, that just means that an regular (x/k)ubuntu isn't necessarily the distro you're looking for. Back in the days when I was using Linux on my main computer, canonical shipped a stripped down version of ubuntu (ubuntu server maybe ?) where you could install just what you need and nothing else (I beleive it came without a window manager for instance).
What you're describing was pretty much my Archlinux setup btw. It was just more convinient for me to build it from an archlinux than a regular ubuntu. You could with an ubuntu though, it'd just be a lot more work I feel like.
EDIT: turns out I'm pretty much explaining you what you already know.... I'll leave my comment up anyway, maybe it'll help someone else.
> My personal opinion is that i3 rocks, and and that I don't need all of Ubuntu or Xubuntu
Getting there with Ubuntu was pretty much "apt-get install" when I made the switch to i3wm. Sure, you end up carrying along hundreds of MB of "junk", but I just didn't find it worth the hassle to trim it down - I have far more junk than that in form of data of my own I could delete...
I probably followed the instructions on that page for using the i3 repos, but it's been long enough that I can't remember doing it or how I did it. But I am using their repos. I don't notice anything explicitly different or better, but i3 isn't one of those things where you're waiting for a new gizmo with anticipation; it just puts up your windows and shuts up about it.
