Fedora 34 Aims To Shrink Its Install Media By Ramping Up Compression

[Widefox]

didn't see zstd on the proposal

It's in the image there https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/File:...ation_time.png

[mikelpr]

If you read the linked change proposal, you would see why this isn't done

didn't see zstd on the proposal

[Anvil]

you dont need to put Libreoffice on the install ISO Media. Microsoft dont so why does dumbass Fedora Devs do it , they could save a lot there

[rajcina12]

This is incorrect. Fedora has always from the first release offered torrent downloads

https://torrent.fedoraproject.org/

It is linked from alt downloads in https://getfedora.org/

Yes you are right, I missed that. But it is not very visible on the website, at least at a first glance.

[RahulSundaram]

Just use ZSTD

If you read the linked change proposal, you would see why this isn't done

[Mario Junior]

Just use ZSTD

[RahulSundaram]

But they do not offer a torrent option at all.

This is incorrect. Fedora has always from the first release offered torrent downloads

https://torrent.fedoraproject.org/

It is linked from alt downloads in https://getfedora.org/

[rajcina12]

You answered your own question. Torrents aren't the most dependable and reliable method of distribution because they're blocked by some providers. HTTP and HTTPS, however, might as well be considered to be universally available for all internet users so that is what they have to optimize their release towards. Going by the numbers I'd prefer Zstd from an end-user doing an install perspective but I totally get their wanting to shave off a couple hundred MB per download perspective.

But they do not offer a torrent option at all. Also torrent download can be useful on slow or unstable connections because the download is split in chunks and allows resuming. One download via torrent would save 2GB worth of bandwidth instead a couple MB. They could include a simple torrent client in their ISO burner app for novice users. Also it is auto checksummed.

[skeevy420]

Why don’t they cap the regular downloads and direct people in using torrents instead.
and yes, I understand that some corporate networks block torrents.

You answered your own question. Torrents aren't the most dependable and reliable method of distribution because they're blocked by some providers. HTTP and HTTPS, however, might as well be considered to be universally available for all internet users so that is what they have to optimize their release towards. Going by the numbers I'd prefer Zstd from an end-user doing an install perspective but I totally get their wanting to shave off a couple hundred MB per download perspective.

[garegin]

Good point. I am also annoyed when there's lack of technical detail on technical matters like this. I'm guessing it's because XZ defaults to a single thread. You can set options via the "XZ_DEFAULTS" variable. I would like to know if there was any investigation on changing this parameter and testing it on "slow" and "fast" machines. Additionally using XZ would increase RAM requirements depending on compression level that was used. Worse case probably 64MB extra RAM required.




Never go full exaggeration. Michael explicitly mentions the reason. The idea is to save network bandwidth. There's obviously a balance between bandwidth cost and installation time, it's very reasonable to me to save on those costs since it's a free service. The only place where this could hurt is if someone is doing CI where they install multiple times every day. I doubt many people do this, most use cloud images.

Why don’t they cap the regular downloads and direct people in using torrents instead.
and yes, I understand that some corporate networks block torrents.