Proposal for solving CD Size problems

[Matt Zimmerman]

More like a proposal for ignoring CD size problems. ;-)

On Tue, Sep 26, 2006 at 06:55:11PM +0100, Scott James Remnant wrote:
> Rationale:
> 
>   - A CD is not large enough for the kinds of things we want to ship by
>     default already

The current i386 and amd64 desktop CDs have a substantial amount of space
available.  What do you feel is being squeezed?

>   - Recommended hardware[0] has now reached the point where we can
>     expect a DVD drive to be available

A DVD-ROM, yes; a DVD-R/RW, no.  With shipit less on the leading edge, even
more users need to burn their own installation media.

>   - Vista and Mac OS X are distributed on DVD.

...a problem which Microsoft and Apple do not have.

> Arguments Against:
> 
>   - Requires a DVD writer, which isn't yet entry-level.  The alternate
>     CD would still be available for those with a CD burner.

I think this category of users is far too large to shunt to the alternate
CD, which is a much less friendly installation experience.

> Alternatives:
> 
>   - Remove existing features (OpenOffice?) from Ubuntu
> 
>   - Stop putting new features into Ubuntu
> 
>   - Localised CDs (only one set of language support)
> 
>   - Two CD distribution ("Please insert Disc 2" during Live boot/?!)

Language support has always been one of the first things to go, and I expect
that trend to continue as space gets tighter.  I think that producing
localized CDs is already essential for usability reasons, and we need to
move in that direction anyway.

The WinFOSS is another value-add which isn't core to Ubuntu, and while we
like it very much, the OS itself is more important, and we may need to
remove it eventually.  Preferably, we could replace it with a virtualized
Ubuntu capable of running under Windows.

There are, I expect, also further space gains to be had in the default
installation without substantial loss of functionality, should things get
too tight.

-- 
 - mdz