Nice project, congrats!
More than pre-installing packages I think it would be great to have a (working) package manager by default. That way users are able to choose whatever floats their boat.
I've been using Linuxbrew[1] (a Homebrew clone for Linux) on a Chromebook for a while, and it's the reason why I can actually use it for something else than browsing. It's a perfect fit if you need to install development tools or libraries.