Re: CD organization (was Re: InfoMagic's new LDR)
>
>
> RE: this product in general:
>
> What would be expected? The product contains multiple
> distributions and is not oriented towards Debian. The vendor has quite a
> range of products. Those who want Debian Linux should get it from vendors
> who use Debian, like Debian, advocate Debian, breathe Debian, eat Debian,
> and even dream Debian.
The product is very attractive for first time linux buyers, _because_
it contains three distributions. Very probably these people, if they
try debian, will find out it doesn't work and run off dissappointed to
another distribution. The CD-Rom set is very attractive for me because
it contains sunsite and tsx-11 archives, and I think it can be
interesting at least to see what is in the latest slackware and Red Hat
releases. My preference is still debian. However I know of no recent,
reasonably priced, complete, debian CD-set that I can just buy here in
the Netherlands. Most offers on the internet require a credit card
which I don't have like most people here.
My main point is that if just anyone is allowed to press a debian CD,
the debian community should make sure that the darn thing at least
_works_. If the ftp-archive is in an inconsistent state, it should not
be allowed to be copied to CD. I still don't know if I could rightfully
complain with InfoMagic because they did not faithfully reproduce the
archive, or that the archive was in an inconsistent state.
> I see that one vendor (not Debian-oriented) is now
> offering a weekly release for $35.
This is nice. However I think for a CD a solid distribution is more
important than a recent one.
> My answer to this is to offer a fresh
> for much less. By fresh I mean that I will "freeze" the mirror as
> often as possible. Usually daily, but you can't always count on the ftp
> sites you mirror from.
Do you also check that the files in the Packages.gz are in place?
> 681984000 bytes raw / 1024 = 666000 blocks
> there is some overhead used for the iso9660 filesystem
>
> > (InfoMagic's Debian CD) is quite close to the limit. On the CD there is
> > a project directory:
> > I guess this could be done away with. If you want to use experimental
> > stuff, you probably should get updates from the internet quite
>
> People who want source/experimental/developmental CD's want them in order
> to save space and bandwidth
I don't claim this stuff is useless. I just think that if you are
making a single Debian CD, this should get lower priority than the X
dynamic libraries.
> Yes, it is better to have more available packages even if it requires a
> second CD.
Agreed. This does not mean you shouldn't think about regulating one-CD
distributions also.
[ good ideas on multi-CD collections ]
Botttom line is that if you allow people to press CD's, you have to make
sure that they will be OK. If accidents like the widely spread
InfoMagic LDR keep happening, this is very bad publicity for Debian.
Eric Meijer
E.L. Meijer (tgakem@chem.tue.nl) | tel. office +31 40 2472189
Eindhoven Univ. of Technology | tel. lab. +31 40 2475032
Lab. for Catalysis and Inorg. Chem. (TAK) | tel. fax +31 40 2455054
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