Memory requirements for desktop CD installation

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Tue, May 09, 2006 at 09:32:35AM +1000, Peter Garrett wrote:
> If I might venture an opinion ( I'm not a developer but I read the list
> with interest) - if Krzysztof Lichota is right about this, then I think
> saying "users with too little memory... may still use the text mode
> installer" rather misses the point.
> 
> The people who most need the shipit CDs are precisely the kinds of people
> who are unlikely to have sufficient bandwidth to download an alternative.
> I would suggest that there is also a likely correlation between
> low-powered machines, low RAM and poor access to bandwidth.
> 
> Is it not a  part of the Shipit idea to help easy access to Ubuntu for
> people in places that have technological disadvantages? If so, the problem
> is real and needs serious consideration.

It did receive consideration at the time this decision was made, which was
months ago.  There are many tradeoffs here.  Consider that it is no small
expense to manufacture, pack and ship these CDs around the world, and so the
more cost-effective we can make the process, the longer the program can
continue and the more CDs can be distributed.  The shipit program is not the
only way to obtain Ubuntu CDs, and other initiatives (like the Freedom
Toaster) can provide access to a wider variety of different types of CDs.

There are a number of ways to support low-end systems, for example:

- Specially targeted derivatives (like Xubuntu)
- Alternative installation methods (the text-mode installation CD)
- Documentation (how to create and activate a swap partition early on the
  live CD)
- Reducing the memory requirements of the live CD

and we are pursuing these to the extent we are able.

For what it's worth, I just did an installation in Polish with the current
daily CD, in a VMWare with 256M of RAM, and it worked perfectly.

-- 
 - mdz