Debian Might Abandon Their Live Images

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Debian Might Abandon Their Live Images

Debian developers are evaluating whether to continue producing "Debian Live" images or not. Should they go away, there would no longer be a Live DVD/CD/USB environment to try out the operating system short of going through the Debian Installer process...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Debian-Live-Or-Not

[ElectricPrism]

THIS HOUSE HAS A WALL OF DRYROT! TEAR THE HOUSE DOWN!!!

In all seriousness though, the decision should align with the goals and direction of the Debian project.

If their goals are to focus on only Servers, NAS, and Integrated Solutions -- sure, and just send desktop people to Ubuntu.

If their goals though are to be versatile and multi-purposed, unspecialized and service all general use -- buck up and do the mans work of fixing the issues. There's no sense in cleaning your room by shoving all the dirty cloths and things into the closet and pretending there's no problem at all.

Bugs must be fixed sooner or later -- and if we never fix them then how again is Linux better than Windows or OSX? Take some pride in the quality of our craftmanship and take some pride in our work!

[davidbepo]

yes, i usually use the liveCD for testing the os, and to do things like reinstalling grub ...

[chuckula]

It's not Debian but I regularly use a bootable Arch Linux USB stick for doing things like out of band system maintenance and it's been extremely useful in booting up ancient computers and wiping their drives prior to recycling.

One use for the bootable image is certainly as a springboard for installation, but there are plenty of uses for them even if you never intend to install the OS on the machine.

[tildearrow]

Do you still use Linux "live" distributions prior to installation?

Rarely. But if I am not installing, then yes.

[Apopas]

Yes, but only for maintenance purpose.

[totoz]

Yes, to check hardware compatibility and avoid discovering after an upgrade that the new version is borked on my computer!

[M@GOid]

You bet I use. For all the reasons people posted above me.

If you ask me, live images should be the default in any GNU/Linux based OS. It makes no sense to you have to install a OS just to discover some important piece of hardware is not supported.

And above all, it provides a feature you cannot find on Windows or OS-X.

[LoneVVolf]

Combine installer and rescue functionality.

If the distro allows installing to removable devices (like memory sticks) , use that to create "Live images" .

[Marc Driftmeyer]

Who cares? They can't keep current in Sid, with GNOME Desktop or KDE. We'll be heading rapidly to GNOME 3.26 and Debian took months after 3.22 to get mostly complete.