On Friday 19 November 2004 19:19, David Fletcher wrote: >It has occurred to me that there must be a better way to distribute > a package of software such as Fedora Core, so I thought I'd post my > thoughts and see what others think of them. > >Firstly, when I had finished downloading the ISO files for FC3, I > had loads of trouble getting them to burn onto media in such a way > that they would pass the media check. Fortunately I had recycled > the CD-RW media I originally used for FC1, so it was just a case of > erase and try again. But many others went onto CD-R, which probably > then went straight into the rubbish bin therefore helping to > deplete the remaining space available in landfill sites. > >Secondly, after installing FC3 then running up2date, it seemed that > many of the packages included in the ISO files were already out of > date before the distribution was made available for download. This, > in effect, wastes all the CDs used to burn ISO files, even the ones > that did pass the media check, and doubles the download time for > all the packages that are already out of date. > >So how about the Fedora team giving this idea some thought? Don't > pack everything into ISO files. Create the next Fedora distribution > as a single, much smaller file, which could be put onto, perhaps, a > USB flash memory device. This device, when booted, would then load > up the installer as disk 1 of FC3 does, then perform all the > information gathering functions for package list, language, > keyboard and location, partition and format the HDD, and finally > transfer all the gathered information to the HDD and set up a > yum.conf file for local mirror sites based on the location > provided. > >Then reboot the machine, which automatically downloads and installs > all the latest packages from the mirrors, resulting in an > immediately up to date installation with a fraction of the download > time. > >Does this seem like a sensible way to go? > >Reactions, please. > >Dave Fletcher Great idea Dave, but what about the guys on dialup? Those will still need the cd's from some cd peddlar just to get to square one. Overall, the present method has only one achilles heel, and thats the problem you describe still exists and only gets worse as time goes for each release. My own personal thoughts on that come down to the cd and dvd iso's should themselves be replaced with a .1, .2, .3, etc version at about 2 week intervals, the replacements haveing all the fixes to date. That way, those of us that tend to wait for stability, and everything working, could go get a fresh set of cd's a month later that had the last 3 weeks worth of fixes already applied. This would be a huge help, doing away with what could be half a days worth of updates once you got it installed. Of course that doesn't mean everything magicly worked, my last test install (TBFair, its rc3) can't find the emu10k1 drivers for an old sblive I put in that box yet! For that box, its minor and I'm not complaining, but from the messages here, the audio or lack of it is still a huge problem for many. Yes, we're supposed to have enough blood to spare when we run fedora but the number of messages here on that subject would seem to make a flood, not a seepage. -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) 99.29% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly Yahoo.com attorneys please note, additions to this message by Gene Heskett are: Copyright 2004 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.
