Re: [gentoo-releng] DVD Releases for 2007.0

[Chris Gianelloni]

On Wed, 2006-10-18 at 07:49 -0700, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
> Chris Gianelloni wrote:
> > As you can probably guess, I'd definitely like to continue the DVD media
> > for the 2007.0 release.
> >
> > This is the list from the livecd-stage1 spec file for the current DVD.
> >
> [snip]
>
> > What additional packages would we like to have on the LiveDVD?  I have
> > no problem adding things like compiz, but they will *only* be usable for
> > people with cards supported entirely by open source drivers.
>
> 1. How big can the total get? How big is it now? Is it half full? 2/3? 3/4?

Well, if we had:

#1. The 2006.1 LiveDVD packages (as listed previously)
#2. a stage3 tarball
#3. *all* of the distfiles

We would be at ~3GB (give or take a couple hundred megabytes) of a 4.7GB
DVD.  Since we offer the media over Bittorrent only, the disk space
isn't quite that vital as media stored on the community mirrors.
Remember that if we add distfiles, we have to add *all* the distfiles.
So any package recommendations must also take into account the amount of
sources needed to build it.

> 2. Is there any information about what *Gentoo* users, to be
> distinguished from the overall Linux user base, do with their systems
> that would guide the packages into "themes", such as science,
> multimedia, network security, office, programming languages, web
> applications/servers, etc.?

Well, I can tell you that the GRP set (and hence the LiveDVD) has
traditionally been designed as a "desktop" reference.  We don't include
server packages.  Now, as you can see, I wouldn't mind doing things like
adding an IDE or two, and other useful applications.  Generally, think
of what you run on your desktop box, and see if we're currently shipping
it.  Then, ask yourself "would other people use this if it were on the
DVD?"  That's pretty much it.

For 2006.1, my primary goal with the LiveDVD was to restore the packages
that were removed from the LiveCD (think KDE) due to size.

With 2007.0, I am wanting to add functionality to that.

> 3. Could there be more than one, with "themed" DVDs like multimedia or
> science only available for a nominal price from the store? Something
> like RHEL -- the source is freely available on line as required by the
> GPL and someone like CentOS could come along and remaster, but people
> who wanted the convenience of downloading an ISO would pay, say, $10 or
> $20 to support Gentoo.

Nope.  We don't have the time for it, for one.  Second, Cafepress
doesn't sell *any* DVD media, meaning that unless we find a new vendor
capable of creating CD/DVD media on-the-fly, as well as t-shirts and
other schwag, we won't be selling a DVD set.

> In the absence of themes, I'd just say "more programming languages,
> Rails and more Ruby stuff, more multimedia, more science, more network
> tools, ..." That's what I use -- everything I have on my systems would
> easily fit on a LiveDVD, but I could go ahead and build my own with
> Catalyst.

Please list *exact* packages.  If I don't use this stuff, I'll never
know what you would consider.  ;]

Remember that there are a few goals here.

#1. Provide packages for the Installer
#2. Provide packages people want
#3. Provide stuff to show off Gentoo

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Release Engineering Strategic Lead
Alpha/AMD64/x86 Architecture Teams
Games Developer/Council Member/Foundation Trustee
Gentoo Foundation