The Linux kernel would maintain a list of the latest Intel microcode versions for each CPU family, which is based on the data from the Intel microcode GitHub repository. In turn this list would need to be kept updated with new Linux kernel releases and as Intel pushes out new CPU microcode files.
Sounds like that would be outdated for everyone without a rolling distro.
You can start with
dpigs
. Then start marking packages automatically installed withapt-mark
.aptitude
may be a good frontend when removing a lot of packages, you can mark entire categories, like libraries, as automatically installed.Pay attention to the package headers when removing packages. You don’t want to remove essential packages.