Ubuntu Looking At Discontinuing Its Source ISOs

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu Looking At Discontinuing Its Source ISOs

Ubuntu's install media (ISO) generation recently broke the assembly of source ISOs. These are the ISOs containing all of the source code packages to Ubuntu Linux with the original motivation of helping GPL license compliance and ensuring the code is easily accessible. But the usefulness in practice is limited and now instead Ubuntu developers are considering the discontinuing of source ISOs...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Ubuntu-Discontinue-Source-ISOs

[CochainComplex]

...to make it available as snaps?

[Danny3]

How about putting the compressed files on the release ISO.
If maximum compression is used, will they really be that big?

[elbar]

Debian used to have possibility instead of apt-get install package to have possibillity to download source and build package during installing with predefined things like in regular package. It mainly was for build servers or for testing purposes when Debian maintainers went out of their mind when open source craps was common in Linux world...

Practically today some possibilities remains but who cares when there should maybe be alternatives of build packages for certain archs and not fighting with harrassment of developers thinkink that their toolkit is better for some package than others and forcing all the world to do that when maintainers come in with their opinion and agree and things don'ŧ work because of such craps. Furthmore common way out of it was dissolve of such package into two toolkit version or other crappy situation or use stable debian and wait for abandonment of their assessment and care for such package. mplayer vs mpv is such package when bluray or dvd is out of current linux world the legal way.

bye bye build package when downloading the whole internet is better way for search that there is some missing man package docs

[varikonniemi]

source isos as unnecessary, what matters is having the build recipes available for reproducible builds to be possible. Making it possible to audit any binary ubuntu ships to be coming from the claimed source.

[archkde]

How about putting the compressed files on the release ISO.
If maximum compression is used, will they really be that big?

Yes they are big. Source packages are already compressed right now.

[archkde]

Debian used to have possibility instead of apt-get install package to have possibillity to download source and build package during installing with predefined things like in regular package. It mainly was for build servers or for testing purposes when Debian maintainers went out of their mind when open source craps was common in Linux world...

Practically today some possibilities remains but who cares when there should maybe be alternatives of build packages for certain archs and not fighting with harrassment of developers thinkink that their toolkit is better for some package than others and forcing all the world to do that when maintainers come in with their opinion and agree and things don'ŧ work because of such craps. Furthmore common way out of it was dissolve of such package into two toolkit version or other crappy situation or use stable debian and wait for abandonment of their assessment and care for such package. mplayer vs mpv is such package when bluray or dvd is out of current linux world the legal way.

bye bye build package when downloading the whole internet is better way for search that there is some missing man package docs

What? Source packages are not going away. You will only need to download them individually instead of having a set of ISOs with all of them.

[M@GOid]

Not only I had never downloaded one of those ISOs in 15+ years using (K)Ubuntu, I also avoid downloading the source of any program, that is why I'm using a distro with easy-to-install packages.

So, for me, them stopping building those ISOs doesn't make a difference. But for the anti-Canonical crowd, is a juicy motive to complain on the internet.

[schmidtbag]

I also don't really see a point in keeping these ISOs. Seems way too niche to ever need them in modern times. If someone really does need them, it wouldn't be hard to burn your own custom disc containing only the source files you need.

[skeevy420]

I don't see the big deal. It's not like they're pulling a Red Hat by making it difficult as fuck to reproduce their builds. All their sources are still available and anyone who actually needs them can download them. It ain't like it's the early 2000s when big cities still had spotty internet.

I doubt the hypothetical Linux user living out in the African savanna, the Australian Outback, a tributary of the Amazon, the Austrian Alps, some remote Norwegian island, or living under an oppressive dictatorship that the Linux White Knights like to tout will be hurting from a lack of access to the Ubuntu source ISOs. Besides, compiling software will take too long, use too much gas from the generator, because, according to those LWKs, those folks are still using Athlon 64s and Sandy Bridge. They probably have a Pentium 3 in use.