I only need the disc 123 not all 15 right?
 

I am about to download and burn Debian CD's via jigdo since I can't find a local retailer. I only need to download and burn discs 1-3 right? I know I can download a mini-CD and then install via ftp but that's not what I want. I want a complete installation on CD. I read somewhre that discs after disc 3 are just additional software. Is this true?

Ok must not be many people around today. No one is answering questions! Oh well I found my answer at debian.org. It says:

Which of the numerous CD images should I download? Do I need all of them?

No, you only need the CD images for your computer's architecture. The architecture is the type of hardware your computer uses. By far the most popular one is the Intel architecture, so most people will only want to get the images for "i386".

Furthermore, in most cases it is not necessary to download all of the images for your architecture. The packages on the CDs are sorted by popularity: CD 1 contains the installation system and the most popular packages. CD 2 contains slightly less popular ones, CD 3 even less popular ones, etc. You will probably not need CD 3 and higher unless you have very special requirements. (And in case you happen to need a package later on which is not on one of the CDs you downloaded, you can always install that package directly from the Internet.

You could also do a netinstall with one burned cd.

debian net install page

Yea I know. That's what I have now. But I want all the CD's. Acutally the netinstall takes forever with my connection. In case I have to re-install I want to have the discs. The re-install would go faster. I see now I can download just the first 3.

U must decide
 

You should get only the CD that hava the applications you need.If u need them all download everything else see what packages each CD containes and decide.

You only need one of the CD's. CD #1 is a full install CD. Each CD after that has different configurations such as vanilla, minimal, etc. I do not remember which CD number corresponds with which type of install, but I do remember that CD #1 is the full. I tried all of the CD's when trying to install Woody, no luck. I did a net install with Sarge, and it went flawless. Maybe someone can tell you which CD is which install. Good luck.