Re: the future of the netinst image
On Sun, Mar 25, 2007 at 11:53:36AM -0400, Rick Thomas wrote:
> First, it's misnamed. People expect it to somehow involve booting
> from the LAN, which it doesn't. That confuses people. Once they get
> that figured out, the existence of a "network install" CD makes them
> wonder what the "businesscard" CD is, if not a network install CD.
> That confuses people.
So propose a better name? Debian has been providing "netinst" images longer
than it's been providing "businesscard" images, though; yes, there is some
confusion about the difference between net*inst* and net*boot*, but I don't
think that's a good reason to eliminate a very useful media type.
> Second, it's significantly larger (factor of 3) than the
> "businesscard" image, but still not complete -- even for a small
> server (non-X) install. You still need access to the Internet (or a
> local mirror repository) to complete the installation.
And you have to download much less from the network than you would with a
businesscard. If you're installing more than one machine and you don't have
a local mirror, the netinst download immediately pays for itself.
> Fourth, it's too big to download without broadband.
So are full DVD images. So what?
> If you do have broadband, you still don't want the netinst image.
No, netinst is my image of choice for a quick download and install in a
broadband environment. Unless I'm going to be doing an install in a
low-bandwidth situation, even the first full CD is likely to contain
packages not relevant to what I'm doing.
> Finally, nobody has a good idea of what should be on it. It's
> neither fish nor fowl, and everybody expects something different of
> it.
Sorry for your confusion, but it's quite well documented what this image
contains and does.
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org http://www.debian.org/
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