This applies only if you use Debian or Ubuntu or any distribution that uses apt package manager.

Normally when you run apt install, it will automatically install a lot of optional packages, without which your intended package will work perfectly fine since these are optional. They just consume more bandwidth and a lot more diskpace. These will only add up as you update your system over time.

Now, there are two ways to get rid of this behaviour. Pass --no-install-recommends to apt everytime you install a package, or put it in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99-no-install-recommend to avoid typing it every time.

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APT::Install-Recommends "false";
APT::Install-Suggests "false";