On Thursday 28 June 2018 11:37:37 Felix Miata wrote:
> dep composed on 2018-06-28 14:16 (UTC-0400):
> > the issue is the presence of frigging gnome, i believe. how can i be rid
> > of this contagion and all its friends and relatives?
>
> I install including
>
> 	tasks=standard base-installer/install-recommends=false
>
> on installation kernel cmdline, and get none of Gnome or GTK until
> installing Firefox or something else that depends on GTK3.

Did you try the command tasksel ? 

Then all your desktops and other items come up, printer, etc. You check what 
install (or to leave installed), whatever is unchecked will be removed. 

TDE, if installed, will be on that list. 

Bill