I want to install slackware on a virtual machine and reduce its size to 3gb since i want to be able to carry it on my usb drive, i want to use it as a web server and have a simple DE like xfce or maybe a small WM like fluxbox, what packages should i discard from the installation to achieve this?

KDE

uh.. yeah i kinda had that figured out, what else??

That's plenty. Much less than 3GB without KDE.

One option might be the 415Mb (installed size) kernel-source package. Whilst you will need this package if you want to compile a custom kernel or if you need to compile special kernel modules (like the VitualBox Guest additions), it can be a nice saving if you don't need it. Even if you do need it you can still consider removing after you are finished with it, as it is the type of package you are most likely to want only at the beginning, when first setting up your system.

Also just a tip, remember it is the package's install size you care about. kernel-source is only 62Mb compressed, so you might not have considered it if you were only looking at the size of the compressed package.

You'll probably won't need teTeX, so discarding t/ series will save some space.

I remove the language packages and also the koffice things. This saves a lot of space.

Just selecting a,ap,l,n,x will take around 750 MB and then install additional packages with slackpkg.

@michaelinux: If you aren't using KDE as you say and have no other apps that rely on it, then removing Qt will save another 129Mb.

Some other big packages you might consider removing:

All of the t series for a 250Mb saving
Samba for a 125Mb saving
Either kernel-modules or kernel-modules-smp as you probably don't need both. The are just over 70Mb each.
Emacs 90Mb or Vim 26Mb (or both!)
Seamonkey 66Mb or Firefox 32Mb (or both and install Opera at 34Mb, which could also replace the 30Mb Thunderbird)
Gimp 54Mb

Try switching to the /var/log/packages directory on a machine with a full install and issuing the following to browse through and get some ideas:

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most definitively emacs. vi is all you need.

Of course the other option (or an additional option) is to get a bigger USB drive. You can buy a 16Gb one for just over $10 (USD). Why bother to save space when space is so cheap these days.

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maaan, that sounds so good a 16gb usb drive for only $10 usd, unfortunately i don't live in the US and usb drives aren't that cheap here (third world countries suck!!).
I'll try all the suggestions above and see what results i get. thanks.

I just quoted dollars because I figured more people could relate to it and amazon.com is so well known. I should however have looked at your location.

In case you are interested, from an equivalent type store in Norway (where I live) a 16Gb USB stick would be a little more than $30 (USD) or I could pick up an 8Gb for around half that. It is a lot but if it was me personally, I'd probably still get at least the 8Gb. Still you make a fair point, the price can vary greatly from country to country and everyone has a different idea of what they feel is expensive.

P.S. Good luck, though I think you will get under 3Gb with ease.

So did you easily get under 3Gb as predicted? Also what did you end up removing in the end?