Fedora extras and the distribution size

Nathan Robertson nathanr at nathanr.net
Wed Jul 14 09:52:44 UTC 2004


On 14/07/2004, at 7:02 PM, Russell Coker wrote:

> On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 18:36, Nathan Robertson <nathanr at nathanr.net> 
> wrote:
>> In the above scenario, we all end up installing a system from half the
>> number of CDs, and get 90% of what we want. Then we grab the 10% of
>> "personal favourites" we prefer from extras. Everyone elses favourite
>> 10% doesn't affect the size of my download then, and everyone remains
>> happy.
>
> In Australia DVD drives are down to $59 each (that's $US42), DVD 
> blanks are
> available for $2.60 each in bulk ($US1.89), and DVD writers are rapidly
> getting cheaper.  This combined with the decreasing cost of broadband 
> net
> access makes DVD installation increasingly useful.

Yes, but by saying that you are limiting to people who can download 4GB 
isos. I concede that that includes sources, but even so, 1GB, 2GB and 
4GB are far apart, and not everyone has unlimited ADSL. For example, 
only the top two of Telstra's five plans would be able to download the 
FC2 DVD iso, even if they abstained from the Internet for the rest of 
the month. (for those outside .au, Telstra is Australia's biggest 
telco). Oh, and that's before you run up2date / yum to update your 
machine after install (and with xorg and kernel updates, that adds up 
too).

The size of the download needs to be considered, particularly given 
there is no official pressed DVD version shipped by Red Hat for $15 
with a 50 page pocketbook guide at your local newsagent any more.

> I expect that in about a year most people will be installing from DVD 
> rather
> than CD, which means that we could double the amount of data and still 
> fit on
> one disc.  Or the same amount of data and have both source and 
> binaries on
> one disc.

The way things are going, they'll have no choice. What happens when all 
binary and source RPMs don't fit on one DVD? Ship two DVDs? We all 
remember Red Hat moving from 1 to 2 CDs, 2 to 3 CDs, and Fedora "Core" 
(!!) from 3 to 4 CDs. At some point it needs to be said that "enoughs 
enough". The extra effort (and CD space) that goes into maintaining 
duplicate packages could probably be spent better on a bit of 
additional functionality and dropping a few CDs. See the threads on 
"FC3 wishlist" for ideas on what the "additional functionality" might 
be.

> Moving things to extras to save on the number of CDs seems rather
> short-sighted.  I think that the choice of what gets in "extras" and 
> what is
> in main should be made on the technical merits of the software, our 
> ability
> to support it, and customer demand.

Maybe. That definition is too vague though. Just like why some things 
were in Powertools and some things in the main distribution was back in 
the good old days. Something more definitive and objective would be 
nice.

Nathan.

PS. I have both x86 and amd64 hardware. Over 8GB of DVD isos. I'm lucky 
enough to have unlimited ADSL. Many don't.





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