For the projects I've done, we're not usually particularly space constrained, but we are usually at least one of: * Cost constrained so RAM constrained * Need

For the projects I've done, we're not usually particularly space constrained, but we are usually at least one of: * Cost constrained so RAM constrained * Need fast boot times * For a niche processor architecture Starting with very little apart from an init system and busybox and then building up from there has been a good approach to get the performant (by whatever metric) platform that I need. That said, I'm not a fan of Yocto at all. I find it painful and slow to work with. I experimented with using Nix (as in NixOS) as my build platform which had some great advantages (e.g. great caching of build steps), but also some pain.