No, a lot of people, even more as of late, are using Live-CD's to install Linux to their HD. It's a nice easy way to get through the install while having a full live computer during the install process (so you can google errors and such).
Personally, I wouldn't choose a distro based off "it comes with the software I need" because if it comes with a distro, there is a VERY good chance you can get it on any distro. I'd tend to look at how package management for installing other applications or upgrading/updating the distro.
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