> I can guarantee you they would either > 1)Ship 2 CDs > 2)Place an offer with the CD to send you a replacement if you can't read > it > > Office 2000 didn't ship on two 700MB CDs (probably would have made it), it > shipped on 3 CDs each less than 650MB.
It would not have fit on two 700MB CD anyway. > > > And yes, Windows 95 and Office 95 had Diskette installers, but that's > > the point. That was 1995. It's been 8 years since then. Why do you > > think thare's not a floppy version of Office XP? > > Because CDs are ubiquitous now. Does Office XP ship on 700MB CDs? my point is, things change. In 1995 the "new thing" was the CD, but the floppy was "ubiquitous". That time is over. Now, 700MB CD are the most common kind of CD, and at some time or another 650MB CD's will be obsolete. It's Mandrakesoft's call, and they say the drives unable to read 700MB cd's are no longer important... Maybe they have good reasons. > > > I don't know any other software company that ships their official, > > > commercial software distribution on CDs>650MB. > > > > In my country, a lot of artists compose albums of nearly 80min, and > > this requires 700MB CD's. > > But doesn't prevent you listening to the rest of the CD, you just miss the > "bonus track". eeewww.. the thought of a "bonus track" makes me think of crappy BsB, Cristina Aguilera, and all those sh*tty pop pseudo-singers.. yuck! no, no bonus tracks. Just regular rock bands which happen to make CDs with 16 songs or so. And i'm talking about a country in a very difficult financial situation, in which people does not dare to waste a single cent on their computers unless it's absolutely necesary. (i.e. if it breaks down completely.) > > Magazines also include 700MB CD's with > > goodies. > > Magazines are for people with money to waste, Sorry, but that comment is very short sighted. >and they don't bet their > business on the CDs, they get most income from adverts. I know, but the fact is, most people can read them, and the amount of business people that care about old cd-drives unable to read 700MB has been getting smaller and smaller for some time now. So what is Mandrake is the first distro to ship 700MB per CD? Others may do just the same next year... > > I may be wrong, but i *think* Photoshop 7 comes in a 700MB CD. > > tihnking isn't good enough, and I would be very surprised if Photoshop > requires a 700MB-capable CD to be able to install (the rest is probably > media, docs etc). And I am quite sure they would ship you a replacement CD > if you needed one. > > > I may be wrong here too, but i also think that the spanish version > > of Corel Draw 11 comes in 5 CD's of 700MB each. > > Please check ... i will. > > > I think i could find more... > > I have never seen any, but that is mostly MS stuff, and engineering > software (Matlab, Nastran/Patran, Pro\Engineer) most of which ship on > multiple CDs less than 650MB. Anyway, this software is high-end machine > only, with software licenses of approx $10 000 per seat, so it's no > problem to buy a new CD-ROM. Mandrake however, if they were to lose the > $30 I would spend on a CD-ROM, wouldn't have any money left (assuming a > $30 GPL set from Mandrakestore). Again. The point is, you will end up buying a new CD-ROM in the future anyhow. Yours will break, get old and die, or simply not meet your expectations or fit your needs anymore. And besides, you will not be buying a new drive every Mandrake release... When you choose not to spend money on hardware, you are also limiting your choices in software. It does not matter if the Linux kernel is getting leaner, if Phoenix is getting lighter, or if the new KDE works faster. Each part of a computer system has it's own lifespan. As a last comment, I just want to make clear one thing: I'm not against four 650MB ISOs. It's just that i can understand the choice for the bigger ones.. It may have bothered me if i had a CD-ROM incapable of reading them, but i would have understood anyway. Damian
