It's starting to look like the end of an era for Ubuntu users as Canonical mull the creation of an ISO that won't fit onto a CDR. The question is, does it matter? Canonical owes at least part of its success with Ubuntu Linux to the unique way that it has been distributed. From the start it has been available as a downloadable ISO image and a free CD, posted at no cost to the user. This was great news for people who wanted to install Linux but did not have the luxury of a decent Internet connection. In a sense, installing via a CDR image has always been like a kind of cache, in that you're moving part of the content that you need onto permanent storage rather than pulling it through the network connection
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Member since:2006-08-17
Member since:2011-08-08
I generally agree with this.
I do not agree with that at all. It's possible to reduce things to the point where you actually wind up with more code and/or more potential bugs once you've addressed all the specific cases using conditional checks. Also, smaller code doesn't mean faster code.
I'm a bit of a minimalist myself but there are certainly times when it's a disadvantage.
As far as giving CDR sizes consideration... Who gives a damn? I sure don't. I can't remember the last time I installed anything from a CD. For that matter, I can't remember the last time I had a CD drive in a box, and I currently only have one box with a DVD drive in it. With cheap USB and SDHC options, why bother?
Edited 2011-12-11 06:05 UTC
Member since:2005-07-06
I don't have experience with Ubuntu directly, but it's likely this is nothing to do with things getting bigger over time. It's never been possible to fit all the things on a CD-sized image that people actually want in a distro; this was a problem for Mandrake/Mandriva and MEPIS and SUSE back before Ubuntu even *existed*. Fitting a distro into 700MB has always been a trade-off, and distros have been considering moving to larger sized images for many years.
I can speak to Fedora from knowledge, and we've *decreased* the size of a live image with a given set of software in it over time, not increased it. But 700MB is still not really enough to fit in everything that everyone wants.
Member since:2010-03-08
Even on a bluray it would be impossible to stick everything people might possibly want.
Let's say I'm a gamer. For perfect OOB experience, I'd like my OS to come with the latest games and video drivers, so that I don't have to buy or download them separately. Should Windows include unactivated copies of Skyrim, Battlefield 3, or whatever else is trendy at the moment ? Should a new release of Windows come out each time a new game or Nvidia driver is out ? If I'm into photo editing, should Windows come with Photoshop ?
CD or DVD, there is always a line to draw. In my opinion, OSs should ship with what is necessary to manage hardware and run most software. Everything else is a nice extra, which is here to demonstrate the capabilities of the OS and satisfy needs shared by more than 90% of users, but must not go in the way of the main purpose.
Member since:2006-07-14
These are distributions we are talking about. Their primary purpose is to package together various other programs and present them as a working Operating System.
I for one, prefer distros that do not radically rewrite programs without working with the upstream to get the changes changes included. As such, the main responsibility for re factoring/ reducing code size should be the individual projects themselves.
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
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"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.The day has finally come: Google has started shipping Google Glass to the lucky few early adopters. Now that it's shipping, Google has also unveiled a lot more about the API and the specifications of the device itself. While the company had already given out substantial details at earlier occasions, there are still a few surprises here.
Member since:
2006-07-26
Personally, I'd worry if your install size keeps increasing without adding major new features. If anything, your code should be decreasing in size as it matures. You also have to be mindful to remove and refactor redundant code when you do add new features, lest you double your potential for bugs while reducing performance.
Of course, that's just me and my penchant for minimalism. Fewer parts generally means fewer bugs, more speed, and much easier to fix.