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I don't really use:
So my question is:
Ideally, I'd like to make my installation as lightweight as possible. I also don't use tags and messaging but they have a padlock, so I assume anything without the padlock is safe to uninstall?
I always disable any of the core components that I won't use and this is a safe approach. I wouldn't recommend to uninstall at this phase until Joomla removes them from the core as it happened with WebLinks.
For a component being part of the core means that they will be back with the next Joomla update - plus if they are not present, there is some possibility for future issues mostly when updating with database/updating/installation/ inconsistencies.
The padlock means the extension is protected - so you can't uninstall or disable it because it is somewhat required at some level. The unprotected ones can be uninstalled - but as suggested above it's safer to simply disable them.
If with Lightweight you mean to have a minimal admin menu for your admins, then ACL and custom admin menus is the way to go.
And a couple of extra tips I usually do (if the following features aren't needed):
Brief explanations on why I disable the above. First this is not done with speed optimization in mind. It is mostly that I prefer to see and have enabled only what I need/use. It gives me a sense of a lighter site, plus it looks friendlier for my admin users. Whenever I need to enable something, it's easy to do it on purpose.
Versions : If left enabled and never meant to keep history of articles changes, I may end up with a huge versions database table. It's easy to truncate it, but in terms of keep things light and efficient I would prefer to not store data that I won't use. Same with redirect plugin, which can easily fill up the database with all sort of 404 urls. Regarding Search plugins, I disable them all if I dont use search, or allow only the ones that I really want to search for (which in most times is content). I don't like when in search results pages it gives me options to choose among categories, tags, contacts etc. Finder, although it needs manually to start making the indexes, if I don't use the smart search I also disable all of its plugins. I also like to disable admin and site modules that I don;t or don't plan to use. This also gives me a shorter list of modules to select when I want to create a new module. Other plugins, I am going one by one in the plugins list and disable any non-needed/used. In some cases (but I haven't tested) this could have small performance benefits.
Locked ones are required for Joomla to work, so you shouldn't unpublish or uninstall them.
The others may be required for some third party extensions to work (as they are part of core Joomla, the assumption that they exist may be made by some developers.)
I have uninstalled some of these in the past without problem, but now tend to use ACL instead - day-to-day work is done with a cut-down administrator account and only the super user gets to see all the additional components (unused third party ones are a different matter - these should always be uninstalled).
I tend to subscribe to the never touch core code school, even though in this case Joomla do let you remove them so one would hope they take this into consideration when releasing patches.
Unpublishing should be fine - the worst that could happen is you need to re-publish.
