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by pella·2y ago·view on hn ↗
> But the size difference between alpine and debian:-slim (for example) is on the order of < 20mb.

  compressed size(amd64):  17.59MB vs.  45.35MB  ( > 2.5x )
  uncompressed size(amd64):52.00MB vs. 130.00MB  ( > 2.5x )

  $ docker images python:3.12.1*
  REPOSITORY   TAG                    IMAGE ID       CREATED       SIZE
  python       3.12.1-alpine3.19      0108959914c2   2 weeks ago   51.7MB
  python       3.12.1-slim-bookworm   7c5c05471c3a   2 weeks ago   130MB**
3 comments
Those are Python images.

The base Debian slim image [0] is 28mb, compared to 3mb from Alpine [1]. So that's a difference of 25mb, or "on the order of 20mb." A machine in the datacenter will probably spend more time opening the connection to the registry than it will downloading that extra 25mb.

[0] https://hub.docker.com/_/debian/tags

[1] https://hub.docker.com/_/alpine/tags

and check the "VULNERABILITIES"

   bookworm-slim : 0H 0M 19L VULNERABILITIES
   alpine 3.19.0 : No Vulnerabilities Found

   python:3.12.1-slim-bookworm : 0H 1M 22L  VULNERABILITIES 
   python:3.12.1-alpine3.19    : 0H 1M  0L  VULNERABILITIES
There is no difference in download time for 20mb vs 50mb in a datacenter, but the amount of time lost to alpine being "quirky" is incalculable.
The compressed size is what matters when discussing image download time- CPUs made after around 2010 can uncompress files ludicrously quickly.