On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 18:36, Nathan Robertson <nathanr(a)nathanr.net> wrote:
In the above scenario, we all end up installing a system from half
the
number of CDs, and get 90% of what we want. Then we grab the 10% of
"personal favourites" we prefer from extras. Everyone elses favourite
10% doesn't affect the size of my download then, and everyone remains
happy.
In Australia DVD drives are down to $59 each (that's $US42), DVD blanks are
available for $2.60 each in bulk ($US1.89), and DVD writers are rapidly
getting cheaper. This combined with the decreasing cost of broadband net
access makes DVD installation increasingly useful.
I expect that in about a year most people will be installing from DVD rather
than CD, which means that we could double the amount of data and still fit on
one disc. Or the same amount of data and have both source and binaries on
one disc.
Moving things to extras to save on the number of CDs seems rather
short-sighted. I think that the choice of what gets in "extras" and what is
in main should be made on the technical merits of the software, our ability
to support it, and customer demand.
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