Debian has thousands of packages in the official repo, so it is possible to download 5 blu-ray discs then merge the ISOs into a single ~90gb ISO containing all apps. From there, that disk can be used to install apps at any moment without Internet access.

Then when Debian moves to a new release, it’s possible to go to a public library and fetch only apps that changed because jigdo can use the previous disk to build the new ISOs.

Apparently Ubuntu and Fedora both also have the same jigdo capability. Is that all? Are there any other distros that:

  1. have a good number of officially supported apps, and
  2. have a download manager that can build a full release using the previous release

?

I am assuming jigdo is the only game in town, and that without a *.jigdo file we can only fetch whole new set of images when a new version is released. Correct?

  • nonserfOPEnglish
    1·
    1 day ago

    In Debian, drivers are part of the official release. I can use the full-blown 90gb installation disk to install any officially supported FOSS drivers. Of course if I need a non-free driver, then I would have to manage that separately.