Merging Live and Install CDs

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Fri, Feb 11, 2005 at 11:38:30PM +0000, Colin Watson wrote:

> I believe there are also people working on a live CD installer, but this
> will not supersede the install CD, which is simply more appropriate for
> many use cases.

I've been thinking about this quite a bit recently.  A casper-based
filesystem-copying install would have a number of compelling advantages:

- Very fast
- Very simple
- Rich UI capability for a graphical installation process
- Easy access to online help resources via multitasking
- One CD does it all (install, demo, recovery)

And of course some disadvantages as well:

- Somewhat increased memory requirements compared to the traditional
  installer (though very close to those of the installed system)
- Could not be used for upgrades
- Would not be suitable for WAN installs
- May or may not be suitable for LAN installs (I'm keen to try it)
- Remastering is more complex

While I must agree that it could not supersede the installation CD, there is
great promise in it.  If I had to choose one Ubuntu CD to give to everyone,
it would be a combo install+live CD, hands down.  For DVD, of course, we can
have the best of both worlds, but CD will be with us for some time yet
(especially as a download option).

I fully intend to make this an option for Hoary+1, time and resources
allowing.

-- 
 - mdz