2007/4/27, V. Sasi Kumar sasi.fsf@gmail.com:
This need not be a problem when one is installing from the Net.
Or you haver 21 CDs or 3 DVDs (the entire debian archive)
Most distributions now have package managers that can automatically download and install dependencies from the Net.
It can install from CD/DVD also and I use this all the time.
A problem occurs when one is trying to install an application from a CD or DVD distributed by, say, a magazine, and it provides only that package and you have to download the dependencies. The problem becomes sever if the machine is not connected to the Net, obviously.
Totally incorrect. You just have to have 3 DVDs/21 CDs or a local repository (I guess space at TVM has the entire repository, its about 15GB). If you don't want to have all of the cds, you can chose as many as you decide, say 4 cds. Now if you want to install some software that is not in the first 4 cds. You can download it on a machine connected to net and have it on a usb or cd (I do this also all the time). Its not rocket science.
Cheers Praveen