Peter Tribble wrote: > On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 9:20 PM, Glenn Lagasse<Glenn.Lagasse at sun.com> wrote: >> * Peter Tribble (peter.tribble at gmail.com) wrote: >> >>> There's no doubt that the new installer has some success in that area. I >>> don't think that the Live CD is really suitable for the targeted developer - >>> primarily because there are significant things missing off the Live CD (such >>> as the total lack of any development tools). At the moment the Live CD is >>> reasonable for NetBook style use (but even there is short of key >>> applications) >>> and demonstration, but it's a lot more work later to get it to a useful >>> state >>> for other usage patterns. >> I think the liveCD is perfectly suitable for developers. It gives them >> media they can install and then add things to easily. How many >> developers actually develop while running directly from a liveCD? I >> know I sure wouldn't want to compile anything while running from a CD. > > The problem is that the contents of the newly installed system will be the > same as the liveCD - so there are no developer tools at all. The potential > developer then has to face a significant download before they can do > anything. It's definitely not just drop in the CD and go. Pulling the amount > of data required definitely isn't easy. Many potential users will be put off > by the amount they have to download, especially if they got the physical > CD given to them. >
The percentage of distribution at this point greatly favors downloads over physical media distributed via the various channels available. > The reason for having the liveCD is to keep the download small, but to get > a decent development system is far bigger. I don't believe that we want to > bloat > the download image, but it isn't obvious why the physical media that's being > handed out isn't a full DVD - most users could use a DVD, I guess, although > downloading and burning it might remove a significant fraction of the target > audience. > The reason is simple: more variants means more testing required, and that hasn't been possible to handle. We are always assessing the needs and will be considering other formats for future releases. And as I've noted in the past, anyone is free to produce other variants based from the /release repository. That's the beauty of a redistributable core set. Dave
