One of the first things I do when I set up a new PC is install the Android platform tools so that I can use ADB, Fastboot and other platform tools from anywhere within the operating system. It has always required a large download of the full SDK (or Android Studio now) which can take a while, and to be honest is a lot of fluff that a majority of people will just never use. To make things easier, Google have released a micro package with only the bare essentials.
Instead of the usual 400MB to 1.6GB download to install the package required to do basic ADB and Fastboot commands, Google have now packed it all into a single Zip file. For the basic hacker/user who just like to tweak a little bit and install custom kernels and ROMs this package has everything you will require, all in a minuscule 3.5MB.
In the past there has always been the option to install smaller packages from sites such as XDA Developers made by third parties, but you are always taking a risk installing third party software such as this. Personally I never trusted them, instead going for the full Google package. Now I can get the slim tools straight from Google themselves.
There are three packages available, one each for Windows, Mac and Linux. You can get them here:
Good to see Google looking after us little guys out here. Hopefully next they may figure out a way to give us easy control over our own devices that we own.
