Yes, having at least CD1 is very useful on some old machines.

[OT]Debian currently has 52 + 11 updates = 63 CDs; I wonder if anyone has tried installing it from CD (i.e. not using netinst.)[/OT]

download all the images, check the md5sums, burn 52+11 CDs and then provided the user is still mentally stable -- proceed with installation

sounds fun

To install Debian you need nothing more than CD1. The other CDs are only for the purpose of installing software on a net-less machine.

Hi,

it is very easy to create an isoimage for the install-CD, it's described here: ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackwar...nux/README.TXT all one needs is available on the DVD or via internet. So I think that it is not really necessary to create official Slackware-CDs, at least not all six.

What do you think about creating one "Minimal installer-CD isoimage" and make it available via the mirrors (or as a CD in the store) instead of the CD-set with all six CDs. This CD could be used for a netbased installation or as a rescue-CD.

As of the DVDs. If the whole stuff doesn't fit on a DVD anymore, maybe it should be splitted for different parts of the world. As you know the kdei-series covers about several hundred of MB. Wouldn't it be an option to create (as an example) one DVD for Europe and America and anotherone for Asia and the rest of the world? Then the amount of space for the kdei-series would decrease.

Markus

This is why I wrote: "not using netinst".

Kinda of reminds me when I first installed Slackware 3.3 using 101 floppy disk images.

I mean the first CD of the whole set. One can install a complete desktop system with the first CD without the need for an Internet connection.

My two cents: Slackware is known for running well on older computers, so the CD-set makes sense. Especially in not very well developed countries, where new computers are rare, Internet is not available everywhere or, if available, not via broadband connections, where the download of even only the first CD will run longer than a day under best conditions. Dropping the the CD-set for the 32 bit version will make Slackware more or less unavailable for people in such areas. People that use the 64 bit version don't need a CD edition, IMHO, most, if not all 64 bit capable computers nowadays should already have a DVD-drive.

I might be a noob, but I generally have an opinion...

IMHO, most of the install should be over the net. There should be enough on a CD, DVD, or perhaps even a Bluray images to facilitate getting on the net and downloading everything else. This should be the free side.

There are those, however, that will want the whole thing on media. All practical modern standard medias should be available for sale - CD, DVD, and Bluray. If people want the images for free I guess they should be available too, but by being able to reliably do things over the net with 1 CD or DVD or Bluray, most would not go through that.

I've always opted to let the computers do the work whenever possible. You know what I mean?

Regards,

Bill Melater

I see this mistake repeated every now and then in the forums, so just for the sake of sanity, I will correct it again:

You don't need the full set of Debian CD/DVD to perform a install.

The first CD/DVD comes with some useful software and suffices to provide a working system. The rest are useful for working offline. Believe me, they are really useful, if you want to manage many similar systems it is better to have the DVDs than to download lots of packages or build a local repository. In addition, you stop depending on your ISP for installing software. Deb distributions are a pain to handle in offline environments unless you have a local copy of the repositories.

Wow, then you would need to manage lot of additional lines of production. Too expensive and cumbersome for sure.

Having everything is always better than having it not. First, because if I buy the DVD I don't waste bandwidth downloading from a mirror. Second, because if my ISP suddenly blackouts and I need to recompile or use the packages of the DVD, I have them without having to depend on the Internet. Third, because if I go visit my relatives who live offline I can perform a quick full install for them. Fourth, because Slackware is supposed to be fully installed. As you are surely going to download everything, why the hell should you download an stripped ISO and then a set of packages everytime you wanted to install a system (and that can be more than once)? ((This is not my case because I usually perform partial installs, but understand this is not the recommended method))

I think you should store as much software as you reasonably can locally. I save every slackbuild script I use with the source so I can replay it again if needed and without having to depend on an ISP that may not be there.

This here is one of the main reasons I switched to Slackware. There are plenty of distros that are very easy to set up and install the software I want via the internet (and a package manager, but automated dependency resolution is another can of worms), but you're pretty SOL if you don't have a decent internet connection. Like I said earlier, I'd rather have too much than not enough. Having a netinstall image would be good, but I personally would still keep my mirrors completely sync'd and my iso's up-to-date. I still think a Slackware USB drive would be awesome, and even more so if it were bootable as recommended elsewhere. Without knowing how expensive the CDs are to produce and how they are packaged and shipped, would it be cheaper to ship 6 CDs (or 7 CDs as Pat mentioned that 6 CDs is becoming a tight fit) or to produce and ship a bootable USB drive (or a boot disk CD and a USB drive)?

I disagree with the netinstall by default approach. Many (most?) folks here in the US have to deal with bandwidth caps - typically 5GB. That makes a net install undesirable and potentially more costly than buying an external DVD drive. My vote would be for DVD as default with the ability to at least create CD iso's for those that can't do DVD.

I agree (I have been using Debian for many years.) Since we are talking about CDs, I was just wondering what it feels like to install from 63 CDs.

I second that.

I would like to see the CD set still be available for those needing that option. If it doesn't look like it's gonna fit on 6 CD's anymore, maybe it's time to trim out some of the lesser used packages. Of course you can always create your own CD images from either a mirror or the contents of a DVD.

For those wanting to install from a USB thumb drive. There is a script in the usb-and-pxe-installers/ directory called: usbimg2disk.sh that will help you create a USB drive with the complete Slackware tree. Thanks Eric.

Build it without the "/source" and the ISO will have something like 2,3GB. You can burn the sources to another DVD media to play later.