Fedora extras and the distribution size

[Russell Coker]

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 18:36, Nathan Robertson <nathanr at nathanr.net> wrote:
> In the above scenario, we all end up installing a system from half the
> number of CDs, and get 90% of what we want. Then we grab the 10% of
> "personal favourites" we prefer from extras. Everyone elses favourite
> 10% doesn't affect the size of my download then, and everyone remains
> happy.

In Australia DVD drives are down to $59 each (that's $US42), DVD blanks are 
available for $2.60 each in bulk ($US1.89), and DVD writers are rapidly 
getting cheaper.  This combined with the decreasing cost of broadband net 
access makes DVD installation increasingly useful.

I expect that in about a year most people will be installing from DVD rather 
than CD, which means that we could double the amount of data and still fit on 
one disc.  Or the same amount of data and have both source and binaries on 
one disc.

Moving things to extras to save on the number of CDs seems rather 
short-sighted.  I think that the choice of what gets in "extras" and what is 
in main should be made on the technical merits of the software, our ability 
to support it, and customer demand.

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