Ubuntu - Still only one CD!

[musther]

I think it's great that Ubuntu is crammed onto one CD, and crammed surely must be the word, there's so much in so little space. Somebody recently said to me 'how can Ubuntu be as good as the other distros like SuSE when it's only on one CD and they're on a whole stack or a DVD, it must leave loads of stuff out'. So I thought about it, and although there are a lot of things that distros like Mandriva and SuSE include that Ubuntu doesn't, I'm happy to consider a lot of them duplications or bloat. But it got me to thinking, every version of Ubuntu gets better, extra features and more hardware support, and as it does, surely the amount of code required must increase, so the distro as a whole must get larger. But every time a release comes out it still fits onto an 800mb CD.

So I'm wondering, how long until Ubuntu doesn't fit onto one CD any more? Are there any plans to move to two CD's, or to a DVD?

[darkninja]

I don't think it's that bad (yet) as Ubuntu only selects the best of each kind of program, where other distros tend to select a million and one different text editors/image viewers/web browsers.

Still, despite that I think it is starting to getting a little tight. Perhaps in a few years when DVDs are more commonplace they might be an option?

[LMP900]

I also thought about this some time ago. Downloading one ISO that fits on a CD-R is very convenient, and I hope they stick with this for a while. I do know, however, that they will eventually have to move to a multiple CD or DVD method of installation.

But I concluded that, by the time Ubuntu moves in this direction, more people will have a broadband connection, DVD burners, etc. so it may not even be an issue in the near future.

[Shay Stephens]

I like it kept to one cd. All you need for a base system can fit just fine. I would vote to keep it that way for as long as possible.

It's easy to succumb to system bloat. By keeping the belt tight, you make smarter decisions in the long run.

Keep it lean baby!

[argie]

I think it's very important to keep it on one CD. DVDs aren't commonplace in most developing countries, where Linux has a better chance than elsewhere (cost-wise, maintenance-wise).

[Peepsalot]

Well, there already are DVD ISOs for Ubuntu. But I still think that single CD should be the standard. You can fit a lot in a 700mb if you are smart about it. So put the most commonly used things on it, and if you really need another program, well you can download it.

By the way, this did get me thinking... what percentage of the CD is in some compressed form like gz or 7z? I have found very good results from compressing various files with 7zip on best compression settings. Maybe even more could be crammed on those discs (if need be) by compressing the majority of the data as efficiently as possible.

[anaconda]

Perhaps in a few years when DVDs are more commonplace they might be an option?

I think they already are. For example here (finland) 1 DVD-R costs about 35c and 1 CD-R costs about 80c .. which would you buy?

It is good that ubuntu comes in 1 CD, it means less bloat than in some other distros...

(PS. DVD-R costs 35c if ordered from estonia (free shipping) and the 80c CD-R is bougth from finland (CD:s dont have free shipping) .. )

[Old Pink]

There's nothing stopping you buying the DVD edition, if you want all the included software...
http://www.amazon.com/Ubuntu-6-06-LT...TF8&s=software

[Tux Aubrey]

I hope they keep it small and uncomplicated. I tried the new Knoppix Live DVD and it is so full of packages the cascading menus fill the screen. A bit scary for a noob.

[Krakatos]

I'll go partly against the flow. I hope they enlarge it IF they allow you to choose what to install during installation...