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I tried to download the Debian "testing" (aka "stretch) install media that is blu-ray because I wanted a one disk solution. When I went to the Debian site to download the blu-ray disk... there was 3 disks... arg.

The regular Debian dvd install media also has 3 disks. Given that the dvd and blu-ray install media both have 3 disks... what is the purpose of the blu-ray version?

Trevor Boyd Smith
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  • What version of Debian are you trying to install? Stable, testing, unstable? And it would be extremely helpful if you could include the links where you found the DVD and Blu-ray images in question. – Faheem Mitha Jan 18 '16 at 23:20
  • @FaheemMitha at one point I did have the link to the blu-ray but I switched to another machine. I must have forgot to put the links back in. Thanks for catching that! – Trevor Boyd Smith Jan 19 '16 at 00:30
  • I am downloading the bluray "BD-1" and it is now 21GB and still downloading. I have downloaded all the DVD 1 through 3 and they are only about 12 GB. – Trevor Boyd Smith Jan 19 '16 at 01:17
  • I hope you used bittorrent. It's easier on the Debian mirrors. – Faheem Mitha Jan 19 '16 at 02:46
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about data storage formats... – jasonwryan Jan 19 '16 at 02:57
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    This really doesn't seem to be about data storage formats at all. – Michael Homer Jan 19 '16 at 04:25
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    @jasonwryan It's a question about Debian installation disks. Not about storage formats. Looks on-topic to me. – Faheem Mitha Jan 19 '16 at 04:46
  • @FaheemMitha It is more about the difference between Blu-Ray and DVD (the content on said disks is actually irrelevant). The answer, which bears no relation to U&L is "because some machines only ship with Blu-Ray"... – jasonwryan Jan 19 '16 at 04:48
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    @jasonwryan Actually, the answer is, not all DVD images are available via HTTP. :-) He was asking why there appeared to be equal numbers of DVD and Blu-ray images, even though Blu-ray has a much bigger capacity. – Faheem Mitha Jan 19 '16 at 04:59
  • @MichaelHomer Whether I am correct or not, I have only one vote to close: the fact that four other votes were cast suggests that the question is either unclear (more likely) or my suspicion is shared. – jasonwryan Jan 19 '16 at 07:19

2 Answers2

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From #debian-boot on OFTC:

06:47 <musca> faheem: yes, the dvd series is much bigger, but only the first three images are available as http downloads. 
06:50 <musca> for stretch the number of DVD images is 15  http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/amd64/jigdo-dvd/
06:55 <musca> faheem: let me point out: you really don't need those additional images.
Faheem Mitha
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  • So... Sounds the bd media require less disks? – Trevor Boyd Smith Jan 19 '16 at 03:01
  • @TrevorBoydSmith The first BR disk is a ton of stuff. Even the first DVD image would be a lot of stuff. What is your use case? Are you installing in Darkest Africa? :-) – Faheem Mitha Jan 19 '16 at 03:15
  • I like to install from media because then I can do multiple installs in <1 hour (install it one way... then learn something change my design/requirements... reinstall again... etc). Compared to the net installer which took about 4 hours for one install... over a 56mbps-tested connection. – Trevor Boyd Smith Jan 19 '16 at 16:25
  • @TrevorBoydSmith Ok. You must have remarkably fast optical and mass storage drives in that case. :-) – Faheem Mitha Jan 19 '16 at 17:00
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The Blu-ray disks have way more software included.

Mind you, almost no one really needs more than one disk (or any other install media) with Debian, as it makes it very easy to download software. One will only want further disks if one plans to install a very rich system with hundreds of applications without any Internet connectivity, which nowadays is a very, very rare situation.

Note that Debian is very different from MS Windows or Apple Mac OS, where the operating system contains only the bare minimum for a working system, the assumption being that users will fetch and install further software from partners. In Debian (and most other GNU/Linux distributions), further applications are included and easily downloaded by the OS itself.

Leandro
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