Fwd: Possibility of accepting a network-based installer of Ubuntu as an official flavor?

[Bhavani Shankar R]

Forwarding my response to Ubuntu devel list as I see my response going as
blank on the list.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Bhavani Shankar R <bhavi at ubuntu.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 24, 2023, 08:32
Subject: Re: Possibility of accepting a network-based installer of Ubuntu
as an official flavor?
To: Aaron Rainbolt <arraybolt3 at ubuntu.com>




On Fri, Feb 24, 2023, 08:19 Bhavani Shankar R <bhavi at ubuntu.com> wrote:

>
> On Fri, Feb 24, 2023, 04:54 Aaron Rainbolt <arraybolt3 at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>
>> Note, I'm asking this *very* early. I don't have the project I have in
>> mind even started yet. I'm not even sure what I want to name this
>> project. This is more of a "testing the waters" to see if this kind of
>> thing is even a possibility before getting started.
>>
>> I've seen more than one person annoyed by the fact that the mini.iso
>> netinstaller is no more. It was never officially supported anyway, but
>> apparently people got use out of it, so it seems like something that
>> would be handy if it still existed. I'm sure we're not going to start
>> producing it again, so I got the idea of making something that could act
>> somewhat similar to it. I asked people about this idea on Mastodon and
>> the response seemed fairly positive.
>>
>> My idea is to either write my own installer or use a customized version
>> of the existing Debian installer, and package it into a "flavor" of its
>> own, which would be capable of installing any supported version of any
>> official flavor of Ubuntu. The "flavor" would be able to be held in a
>> very small ISO file (preferably CD sized), and it would download and
>> install all of the packages that make up the Ubuntu system at runtime.
>> This would allow a user to install Ubuntu or any desired flavor thereof
>> using a single installation medium, rather than having to flash an ISO
>> every time they want to make a drive install a different flavor. The new
>> installation would be entirely up-to-date from the get-go, and it would
>> enable the use of existing small storage media for those users who don't
>> have sufficiently sized optical discs or flash drives.
>>
>> I would eventually aim to make this into an official flavor of Ubuntu,
>> however it would differ from all existing flavors in several significant
>> ways:
>>
>> * It would be the first flavor that could not be installed onto a target
>> system by itself.
>> * It would be the first flavor that could install other flavors onto a
>> target system by design.
>> * It would be the first flavor that could install versions of Ubuntu
>> other than the one it is based on.
>> * It would have a different installer than any existing flavor of Ubuntu
>> most likely, and would not be able to make use of existing official
>> installers in any meaningful way without large changes to one of them.
>>
>> Because of these differences, I'm not sure if such a project could ever
>> become an official flavor, and I may end up simply maintaining it as an
>> unofficial installer by myself should I end up doing it.
>>
>> Is this kind of project a possible candidate for becoming an official
>> Ubuntu Flavor, or is this enough info to declare it as not a possible
>> candidate?
>>
>
Somehow my reply went blank last time..

So it's like ubuntu-minimal package isn't it?

https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/minimal/releases/kinetic/release-20221022/

Right now it's available for cloud but debian already has one

https://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/

So, if this is for flavours with only the bare essential main repo pulled
in with optional network support.. it's a +1 from a Lubuntu user here! As
it helps in reviving old systems and reach out to people with low
bandwidth..

Just my 2 cents here.

Regards
Bhavi
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