On 15-Dec-2013 3:07 AM, "Kevin Kofler" <kevin.kofler@chello.at> wrote:
>
> Syam Krishnan wrote:
> > The DVD is extremely important for people who don't have cheap and fast
> > internet available to download RPMs post installation. Without such a
> > connection, the live CDs have limited utility.
>
> It's easier (a smaller download) to download a live image with only the
> necessary parts and then install only the packages you actually need rather
> than downloading an installer DVD of which you will be installing only half
> the packages. (This is one reason why I fought hard to keep CD size as long
> as possible, but unfortunately, I lost that battle to creeping bloat and to
> useless size-increasing "features" such as "Mini"DebugInfo.)
>
> In addition, unless you install right on release day, many of the packages
> you install from that DVD will be updated on your first "yum update" anyway.
> In contrast, post-installed packages are pulled directly from updates where
> applicable.

But what about installing on machines that don't have internet connection? Or at least not a good connection that's useful for yum?

The DVD allows for 'download once from anywhere and install multiple times anywhere'. Then there's no need for yum installing packages everywhere. The only not so simple alternative is to install from cd on the download machine (or a virtual machine), then yum install the rest with all packages cached and then copy off these rpms to other machines. Not a simple solution, you should agree.

P.S. I think there's a need for an application that can use installed rpmdb info from one computer and download required packages (including deps) from another internet enabled computer (that's running any Linux or even Windows). I think I'll start working on that with a bit of help from you guys.

Syam