On Tue, Nov 01, 2022 at 08:22:07PM +0100, Thomas Schmitt wrote: > Hi, > > Bret Busby wrote: > > Are Blu-ray drives available for computers? > > Sure. > > My oldest one is a LG BD-RE GGW-H20L of 2008. > My youngest is a ASUS BW-16D1HT which i bought recently after my > Optiarc BD-5300S died mechanically. > > > > I do not know of the storage capacity for a Blu-ray disc, > > Single layer 25 GB, double layer 50 GB, triple layer 100 GB, > four layer 128 GB. > BD-R are write-once media. BD-RE are overwritable many times. > Single layer media offer by far the best price/capacity ratio. > (Cheaper than USB stick but more expensive than rotating hard disk.) > > > > Given that USB thumb drives have been available, of up to 256GB capacity (I > > have a few of them), I expect that iso files (or, iso file collections, if > > needed, such as the whole set of 40 DVD images) for USB thumb drives, would > > be available. >
There's a price/performance/storage overhead - if the media team made 256G .iso files to go on a stick, they'd have to be stored somewhere - even if just as .jigdo files. The number of people who would want to generate such .isos is relatively small. There's also the (non-negligible) risk of errors in copying to USB sticks which may not always be reliable unless you pay $$$ for solid branded guaranteed drives - Corsair do some fantastic USB drives but these are expensive. > There is a 16 GB ISO named STICK16GB-1 > https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-16G/ > Which works well - but may take a long time to generate, even with a local mirror on the same network. Likewise the BD images. (From experience doing point releases and generating the images locally). > The problem with multiple ISOs is that Debian expects them on as many > different optical media and will prompt you to put them into the drive > when needed. > I am not aware that this would work out of the box with multiple USB sticks. > > Easier to use is a merged ISO which was made from some or all ISOs of > a set of installation media. > > (Actually there are 19 DVDs on > https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-dvd/ > while "current" is 11.5.) > I trust Thomas to do and know the right thing for merged .iso files as he has demonstrated on this list and he is generally exceptionally helpful here. > Then you've got source as well - if you wanted to have a "complete" Debian - all architectures, including source - the number of disks would soon soar. > > If my memory is correct, back at about Debian 3.0 or 3.1, Debian was > > available on something like 3 DVD's or 8 CD's, although, with advancing > > years, my memory of that, may be a bit fuzzy. > > Who needs wet memory when there is the cdimage archive ? > https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/ > For the only CD sized images: > https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/3.0_r0/i386/ > and of them there were seven: > https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/3.0_r0/i386/jigdo-cd/ > But at 3.0_r3 there was also a single DVD: > https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/3.0_r6/i386/iso-dvd/ > > > Have a nice day :) > > Thomas > All the very best, as ever, Andy Cater
