Re: Boxed Distributions
On Tue, Nov 01, 2022 at 08:22:07PM +0100, Thomas Schmitt wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Bret Busby wrote:
> > Are Blu-ray drives available for computers?
>
> Sure.
>
> My oldest one is a LG BD-RE GGW-H20L of 2008.
> My youngest is a ASUS BW-16D1HT which i bought recently after my
> Optiarc BD-5300S died mechanically.
>
>
> > I do not know of the storage capacity for a Blu-ray disc,
>
> Single layer 25 GB, double layer 50 GB, triple layer 100 GB,
> four layer 128 GB.
> BD-R are write-once media. BD-RE are overwritable many times.
> Single layer media offer by far the best price/capacity ratio.
> (Cheaper than USB stick but more expensive than rotating hard disk.)
>
>
> > Given that USB thumb drives have been available, of up to 256GB capacity (I
> > have a few of them), I expect that iso files (or, iso file collections, if
> > needed, such as the whole set of 40 DVD images) for USB thumb drives, would
> > be available.
>
There's a price/performance/storage overhead - if the media team made 256G
.iso files to go on a stick, they'd have to be stored somewhere - even if
just as .jigdo files. The number of people who would want to generate such
.isos is relatively small. There's also the (non-negligible) risk of errors in
copying to USB sticks which may not always be reliable unless you pay $$$ for
solid branded guaranteed drives - Corsair do some fantastic USB drives but
these are expensive.
> There is a 16 GB ISO named STICK16GB-1
> https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-16G/
>
Which works well - but may take a long time to generate, even with a local
mirror on the same network. Likewise the BD images. (From experience
doing point releases and generating the images locally).
> The problem with multiple ISOs is that Debian expects them on as many
> different optical media and will prompt you to put them into the drive
> when needed.
> I am not aware that this would work out of the box with multiple USB sticks.
>
> Easier to use is a merged ISO which was made from some or all ISOs of
> a set of installation media.
>
> (Actually there are 19 DVDs on
> https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-dvd/
> while "current" is 11.5.)
>
I trust Thomas to do and know the right thing for merged .iso files as
he has demonstrated on this list and he is generally exceptionally helpful
here.
>
Then you've got source as well - if you wanted to have a "complete" Debian
- all architectures, including source - the number of disks would soon
soar.
> > If my memory is correct, back at about Debian 3.0 or 3.1, Debian was
> > available on something like 3 DVD's or 8 CD's, although, with advancing
> > years, my memory of that, may be a bit fuzzy.
>
> Who needs wet memory when there is the cdimage archive ?
> https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/
> For the only CD sized images:
> https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/3.0_r0/i386/
> and of them there were seven:
> https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/3.0_r0/i386/jigdo-cd/
> But at 3.0_r3 there was also a single DVD:
> https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/3.0_r6/i386/iso-dvd/
>
>
> Have a nice day :)
>
> Thomas
>
All the very best, as ever,
Andy Cater
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