Debian too big? (Re: intent to package: gmt generic mapping tools)
(Note: CC'ed to Debian-devel, not Debian-user)
> > The full-resolution coastline archive is 57 Mb. Will it be included? (High
> > resolution is 12.6MB). I can see us filling a CD quickly with this. On the
> > other hand, if it saves me a 57 MB download, it's very well worth it!
Michele Bini wrote:
> Data such this can be very useful to scientist but the main distribution
> is already too large (IMO).
I disagree. (How big is SUSE?)
Debian is near a size break point right now. binary-i386 is close to not
fitting on a single CD. What can be done?
1- Remove some packages when we add new ones, choosing which get to be in
Debian to kepp it `small'.
2- Tweak the install and package tools to betyter accomodate multi-CDs (we
already have the problem with contrib and non-free anyway). Perhaps a
complete distribution Packages.gz file to let dselect know what's
possible, and another file to let it know what's on the CD (or
directory) currently mounted.
> What about creating specialized distributions or add-on CDs containing
> this and similar data (such as star database)?
Hey, I'd like `star' data on the CD if it came with sotware to draw the
sky for a given position and time, and I'm not that kind of scientist.
> (That is, scientific tools remain in the main distribution, including small
> databases, but the full ones are only put in 'scientific' CDs).
I think once Debian is too big to put on a single CD, and is forced to be a
multi-CD distribution, then we can easily afford to add a 57 Mb coastline
data set so that Junior can use Debian to draw maps for the class project.
(It's a dataset that's not limited to scientists). Heck, I'd put datasets
of all resolutions on the CD :-).
--
Peter Galbraith, research scientist <GalbraithP@dfo-mpo.gc.ca>
Maurice Lamontagne Institute, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
P.O. Box 1000, Mont-Joli Qc, G5H 3Z4 Canada. 418-775-0852 FAX: 775-0546
6623'rd Linux user at the Linux Counter -- http://counter.li.org/
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