Fedora, now my distro of choice, offers a variety of ways to install. Just take a look at this screenshot to see what I’m talking about.
Obviously as my platform of choice is going to be 64bit machine with 4GB of RAM I should probably go with one of the 64bit versions. My choices now become the standard GNOME 4.0GB DVD, the GNOME 692MB Live CD, the KDE 695MB Live CD, 3.7GB worth of GNOME? CDs, or I could also use the 32bit bit variants of those as well.
Without getting into a GNOME vs KDE debate which of these do you think I should get? I’m leaning toward the DVD because as I see it the Live CD is worthless – I’m going to be installing it one way or another. Then again I’m going to have an internet connection during install, is downloading the extra 3.5GB of DVD really worth it when compared to the CD based ones?
This will require more research!
Live CDs are never useless, come now. Honestly, I’m going for the standard 4.0 GB Gnome DVD.
Does the DVD contain both GNOME and KDE? Does it include all of the options that you would normally have to have installed post-installation?
I am Rahul Sundaram, a contributor to the Fedora Project and just came across this blog. Very detailed information and it is interested in see someone do this. On Live CD vs DVD, it is a matter of tradeoffs and here they are:
DVD: More packages, more flexibility (you can select packages during installation etc) but a bigger download and since Fedora updates packages quite rapidly, much of the content in the DVD is outdated
Live CD: Very fast installation esp if you use a Live USB, no package selection during installation and essentially very simple installation. Cons, would be less number of packages in the media but since these get updated like I said, i don’t see it as much of weight. Also you can make sure your hardware works well before you even start the installation
In short: I would suggest going with the Live CD. Read
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_11_FAQ carefully including references before you proceed and you will have your expectations set right.
Thanks for your input, Rahul. It’s a pleasure to see that our blog is attracting some attention from the great contributors to the Fedora Project, and we appreciate any and all input you’re willing to offer.