I would like to express my annoyance at something I've seen repeatedly in LQ users' comments: "well, do x instead to solve your problem, because it just doesn't cost very much anymore," e.g., recommending an obvious but more costly solution when I implied I would rather use the cheaper but possibly less convenient solution I proposed. I feel such responses display lack of awareness of the privation and need to save money that this bad economy has engendered. The last time I saw this was when I talked about how some distro has only a DVD-sized version and I wished it could fit on a CD (mostly because CDs cheaper than DVDs). All anyone could say was "Well, use DVDs anyway because they're cheaper than they used to be." Yeah, well, CDs are cheaper still, and even if the economy weren't crushed, I'm frugal. I guess most LQ users are less frugal.

A fitting rant, these are dire times where every single cent counts. I should know, I just bought a house...
Being frugal, however, is an aquired quality. Aquired in time. I can appreciate that frugalnes and age somehow are in sync...the older the more frugal, or, the older, the more profoundly things get valued. I for one can share the utter horror to see a CDrom with space for 650-700 Mb filled with one folder containing four pictures in total of...a mere 15Mb....what a waste. Both the money, and the environment. Use mail, or sneakernet instead.
Eh, it's an other of those things young ones have, along with loud music, speeding and stuff...kids of today...
I can relate, believe me...

Thor

Not always. I'm 32 years old and was frugal at least as early as age 13 (the age I took to recycling like a fish to water). I also generally have to be dragged kicking and screaming into spending money.

Umm, sorry, by age, I meant maturity...sorry for the wrong word

If you're too cheap to buy a DVD then google "iso to usb" and skip the dvd and use one of your old USB thumb drives. There is a point where my time is worth more than the cost associated with something. A quick look online at one of the office stores show about $4 difference for a pack of 50.

A pack of 50? How many people want 50 CDs or DVDs?

But if you want Linux to use rather than to tinker with, then a CD with hardly any software is not really a good idea. The thing that puzzles me are the distros that boast that they keep it small enough for a 1GB USB stick. Things are obviously different in Britain, where you can't find one less than 4GB in the shops.

It's $25 for 50. I'm still using a 50 pack I bought 5 years ago. I suppose you can buy them in smaller quantities but you end up paying more per DVD to do so.

You can't find less than 4GB unless you want to buy one of the animal character ones at the checkout next to the gum for about the same price or a little more than the 4GB version.

I don't understand that. I do generally want my Linux to use rather than to tinker with, but even so, why do I need most or all of my nonessential software included on the installation disc when I can download it as soon as my internet connection is up and running? I've figured out by now that Linux lives online.

Not me, unless I see an awfully good deal. I think 50 or more is more than I need on hand.

...umm, I dont really think THAT's the point here, oh sure, anyone can grab a stack of DVD's, no sweat, but...what's the better (more profitable) use here? Okay, let's assume you'd burn a DVD...I'd like to challenge anyone: where does it end up? Somewhere on a shelf...and under some dust what a waste, innit? I think that's where OP wants to get this rant to...and, yup, I could follow him...

I don't disagree with the OP entirely but I also know that if you save up for a few months then you ought to be able to afford a 2GB USB stick, for example, and do away with the environmental and monetary waste of optical media.
Yes $10 is $10 but to my mind it's better than fooling around with a bunch of CD ROMs.

Perhaps. Also better than fooling around with CD drives. After an unusual number of distro installations that suspiciously don't work right in one way or another, I suspect a problem with at least one of my drives.

I'll have to play "devil's advocate" here and say I have felt disrespected numerous times on these forums (not singling out the OP or anyone else posting in this thread ) when users have rejected my good advice because it will cost them a couple of $$. All too often, people under-value their time in the equation. If a $1 blank DVD, $10 thumb drive, or $50 RAM upgrade will instantly and effortlessly solve your problem, saving you many hours of frustration, then just do it---don't ask me to waste my time typing out a longer, more complex solution catering to your frugality, that may or may not even work.

Sorry for the rant.

@ snowpine: touché, nonetheless, sometimes spooning out "yet more cash" can get frustrating. Okay, let's assume the next $50 will solve the current problem, then...what'll be next?
Of course, it's not so much the cost of a disk, but more the "where will it end" issue...
I can not always relate, though, because right now, I have six workable systems, and the next one is about to arrive...as a hand-me-down. I have yet to buy a new PC...
Frugalness can be a need, an art and a sport...
Just the other day, I received two dozen of memory units ... for free... max 256 Mb per stick and worthless by any current standard...but an upgrade never came this cheap...

It's all the "where will it end" thing and moreover the ease some people display in "just burning a DVD" or "just getting this or that cable"...this can be somewhat, well, let's just say: some of us count the pennies...

You know I have a PC with SATA connection as well as IDE? Since I did'nt want to "spend yet again"...I set it up with a (yes hand-me-down) drive of 80Gb, while a simple little cable of some euro's/Dollars could hurl it into the terrabytes of SATA...question: do I NEED all of the umpff .. now???

Hehe....

I gave up on spinning optical media after buying a replacemnent for a replacement of a DVD drive on an otherwise fine PC, oh, and a replacement for the CD also.
I buy things I hope will work in years to come -- the phone I type this on may be 5 years old and my EEEPC is still doing good service, my old media player is still going strong after what must be 7 years and there are still few players with a larger HDD.
Plan for the future but also realise that everything will become obsolete -- even, no, especially ourselves.

If hard cost limits are part of your requirements, then you should mention them up front.