[ubuntu-za] Edubuntu

[Jonathan Carter (highvoltage)]

Hi Charl

On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 2:27 PM, Charl Wentzel
<charl.wentzel at vodamail.co.za> wrote:
> I'm busy downloading Edubuntu 9.10 for a friend and got a shock when I
> noticed that it is now a 3.3GB DVD download.  I've rather enjoyed the
> fact that Ubuntu downloads have always been CD-sized.
>
> Despite the band-width shock, I'm quite interested in what they've added
> to make it such a sizeable download.  Anybody using it that could fill
> me in?  I assume it is no longer just an add-on CD... DVD?

Initially, Edubuntu was very similar to the Ubuntu installation disc,
the difference was basically that you could install LTSP from it out
of the box and also have educational apps shipped with it. The problem
was that the Edubuntu project (of which I'm part of) already needed to
remove software and language packs from the CD to make space for the
Edubuntu related apps.

A few releases ago Edubuntu changed to an add-on CD to Ubuntu. This
made it possible to put more things on the CD and have less
duplication, however, users were very unhappy with this and wanted a
turn-key solution, so we decided to go back to a full installation,
and this time a DVD so that we don't have the same space issues.
People wanted a GUI install, and they wanted to be able to install
LTSP automatically. Unfortunately LTSP can't be installed from a
LiveCD yet, it's something we're working on and we hope to have it
ready for Lucid. As a result, the Karmic DVD basically ships
everything twice, packages for the alternate CD and the LiveCD
squashfs image.

Lucid will include more packages but once the alternate install
section is dropped the total size should be under 2GB at least. The
current situation is definitely less than ideal but it will certainly
get better.

-Jonathan