Re: Debian DVDs
Tony Godshall <tg@of.net> writes:
> Seriously, all I want is media big enough to install the
> base system. Once I have networking, I apt-get the rest.
> Even media a distribution or two behind is fine, given how
> effective apt-get dist-upgrade is (esp. with a small
> install). Sure I get most of my packages from stable but I
> generally need to get something from testing or unstable
> anyway, and even from stable, I want the stuff with the security
> updates!
This is how I install machines at work, too. However, that is *at
work*, where we have an OC-3. Unfortunately for me, and billions (US
billions, 9 zeroes) of other people in the world, the best Internet
access available at home is v.90. That's right, 56k. It's not an
option to move somewhere with better bandwidth, and I can't drag my
box to work and back whenever I want to do a mass update (read
dist-upgrade). It can sometimes be faster to get a CD via next-day
shipping than it is for me to wait for apt to download everything I
want to install. This is especially true with home machines, where it
is not uncommon for one to want GNOME or KDE, which are no small
beasts. Until everyone has massive bandwidth to the garage, media is
going to be needed.
> How odd... when I went shopping yesterday for a replacement
> for my trusty old slink cdrom, all I found were 3-cd sets!
> All I want is enough to get to networking.
Try the compact floppies. Only three disks.
> How about the opposite extreme of a release DVD: A release-
> agnostic CD that runs right off the CD, lets you enter a
> distrib mirror site and your chosen distrib and then runs a
> network-based install of stable, testing or unstable straight
> off the net (via ramdisk perhaps).
That's actually a pretty cool idea, for those places where a net
install makes sense. Could even be one of those credit card CD
thingies: keep it in your wallet, just in case. ;)
-- sparky
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