[plug] Woody on 7 CDs!? Why?

[Trevor Phillips]

On Monday 22 July 2002 20:24, Michael Hunt wrote:
> Craig Ringer [mailto:craig at postnewspapers.com.au] wrote some of this:
> > > since it's 8 cd's, it will be a bit more expensive than the $20 for
> > > potato... :)
>
> Well prices vary from $25 for Everything Linux 7 CD Set [1] (not not
> available until the 12th of August) to $44.95 for a 8 CD set (don't know

Why the heck would your average net-enabled person need all 7 CDs? I don't 
understand. Is it just the act of knowing you own the whole thing? Do people 
use the whole set?

Personally, I have CD #1 on a CD-RW, and occasionally I'll download (at work 
where it's fast & free WAIX) a new CD #1 as new releases come out. Usually, 
CD #1 contains enough base system, and the rest I download over my aging 
33.6k modem (Bloody ADSL "coming soon" crap), even if I have to leave it 
going overnight. If I was on ADSL, then I'd definitely only need the first 
CD, and get the rest online, where newer, and security patched versions 
become available.

To me, saying "Here it is" and getting 7 CDs is clunky. Don't get me wrong, I 
love Debian's package management system, but I think their CD usage needs 
some work. Heck, maybe there's tools and info out there that I don't know 
about!

First idea: It'd be nice to know WHAT is on each of the 7 CDs. That can't be 
that hard. If all the BIG things I want are on 1 or 2 CDs, then why bother 
having the rest?

Second idea: I'd like the ability to easily make custom CDs. I'd like to fire 
up something similar to TaskSel, and select the main categories of stuff I'm 
interested in. Maybe go to an advanced mode to add certain other packages to 
the list. Maybe say "Add everything I currently have installed". Maybe even 
"Add everything I currently have installed on these 5 machines". The info 
would be saved to a config file that could be used to generate newer versions 
of the custom CDs as they came out. Whack the boot & base stuff on the first 
disc, and keep the rest customised. It's probably possible to do this sort of 
thing already, but a nice tool so your average Joe can do it would be useful.

Third idea: I'd like to see a "Best Of" collection. No-one installs ALL 
packages, do they? Why not find out what are the most common packages used, 
and make a 2 or 3 CD set, just of those packages?

This rant would probably be better sent to a Debian-specific group, but hey. I 
still feel like a little fish in a big frelling pond. ^_^;;

And who knows, maybe some of what I'm after is out there, somewhere, that 
someone here knows about...

-- 
. Trevor Phillips             -           http://jurai.murdoch.edu.au/ . 
: Web Technical Administrator     -          T.Phillips at murdoch.edu.au : 
| IT Services                        -              Murdoch University | 
 >--------------------------------------------------------------------<
| On nights such as this, evil deeds are done. And good deeds, of     /
| course. But mostly evil, on the whole.                             /
 \      -- (Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters)                          /