What is primarily responsible for many distros becoming so large that they can now fit only onto a DVD? Is it an increase in the amount of non-required software included by the designers, or an increase in the amount of software code the distros require to run? Until now, I supposed the designers are including more extraneous software than they used to. Am I blaming the wrong thing?

I think it's a combination of things. Partly it is the growth in the size of the base software. A generic linux kernel with tons of drivers compiled in is larger than the older kernels. Similarly the desktop (KDE and Gnome) have grown in size for their base package sets. Things like libre/openoffice are much larger due to increased functionality. Additionally more software is being included by distros than used to be.

And partly it's because DVD's are now as cheap as CD's. If you have two media that are similar in cost, why not pick the one with more space and give your users more "goodies"?

Your answer suggests that although it's both the software inclusion and the expanded code, the expanded code is more responsible.

You could give them more goodies, but it may be better to let them pick their own goodies. I can't be the only user who generally does nothing but word process (KWrite and OpenOffice), use the internet (network software and Firefox), and scan and edit photos (Kooka and GIMP).

For some reason, I'm skeptical of there no longer being any significant price difference between CDs and DVDs. I'll have to look next time I go to a store that sells them.

100 Pack CD-R on Newegg (cheapest one) = $13
100 Pack DVD-R on Newegg (cheapest one) = $18

So I guess you're right, there's still a USD$0.05 per disc difference.

As to the choice, that's why I typically just install a bare bones Debian from the netinstall and apt-get my way to a system I like. The nice thing is that once you get a setup you like, you can do dpkg --get-selections > mysystem.txt generate a package list and then dpkg --set-selections < mysystem.txt to install from said package list.

It's a very good thing. I don't want space wasted, and I want as many packages available as possible, that way I have to install less myself.

Most computers now come with DVD drives standard, too. When I first started they were rare and expensive. Broadband connections are also much more common, so that downloading a DVD image doesn't take forever for many people. For that matter, computers in general are faster, and can handle larger amounts of data in the same relative time periods.

In the end, it's just the ongoing march of progress. The more space you have, the more you can do, and computer software always tends to expand to occupy the available resources. Before CD's, everything was distributed on floppies, and you could've asked the same question about the transition to CD (and gotten pretty much the same answers).

And in a few years you'll likely be asking the same question about the next transition, to Blu-Ray or whatever technology eventually replaces DVD.

People want and want so developers give and give except things like menuetos and tinycore.

I am at a perhaps awkward point between your position and an absolute newbie's. I don't have either the inclination or the expertise to select every single package in my distro (and the last time I tried learning how to netinstall, there was some problem I could never solve), but when I (re)install my distro from its liveCD, I wish I could make it leave out the games, the toys, and many of the KDE organization programs (I never use them).

Oh, yeah--I just remembered why I couldn't netinstall. The Debian netinstaller tried to connect to my network so it could start installing, and was never able to. I couldn't determine why, and gave up. The only distros where I've ever been able to use the internet are newbie distros with a program that can access my wireless network easily.

Although that logic ignores the fact that a dvd .iso costs a lot more to download than a cd .iso

I recently started using Crunchbang which has hardly anything in it's default install. It's perfect for me, but might be a headache for someone else! :shrugs:.
Some of the mainstream distros are starting to develop a philosophy that looks very similar to the Microsoft approach and that does not sit well with me.

> Although that logic ignores the fact that a dvd .iso costs a lot more to download than a cd .iso

Yes, but the same was surely said when Linux distributions switched from "a handful of floppies" to CDs as well, you know?

Clearly there's never going to be 100% agreement on whether or not distributions being a certain size is too big or not. Personally I think a DVD-sized distribution here in 2011 is entirely reasonable (whereas I would balk at a Blu-Ray-sized 22GB distribution)... but I also have plenty of respect for the folks who strip down distributions such that they'll still fit on a CD.

I haven't seen a single-disc (1.44MB :-) ) distribution in years now, though!

Still there.

http://www.menuetos.net/

Oh don't get me wrong. A full, broad-spectrum distro like Ubuntu can only benefit from a DVD as opposed to a CD. I think it's partly a result of progress that makes it a requirement. On the other hand, it's only a benefit to a newbie that doesn't know exactly what he needs yet or someone who knows that he needs all those hundreds of pre-installed packages. My needs do not reflect a more general demographic though. I do not use office productivity software which makes me an exception to the rule. But the beauty about the Gnu/Linux landscape is that there are distros to suit almost any preference out there! .

What difference does it make? I have Tiny Core at 9.4 meg installed and Suse at 4.3 gig. The difference in speed from boot from grub till browser opens Google is a little over 3 sec. The size of todays hds the space requirement is not significant. I am lazy and it is easier getting around with a larger distro and all its buttons and whistles. If a person has an older set with less memory it might be an advantage with a smaller distro.

It depends on who you are and what your situation is. If you don't have much money (in this economy, many don't), the price difference between a package of blank CDs and a package of blank DVDs might matter.

And we can't do much about the essential Linux software needing more code, but I feel that to include games, toys and highly specialized software disregards this KISS principle that I've heard about and agree with. It's the principle.

Most all major distros that I can think of still offer live cds along with dvds. As far as I know knoppix I believe is the only one that does not. I would think this will end when the demand for cds becomes less over time.

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