Subject: bug#47633: Provide direct download to .iso

From: bo0od <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2021 21:31:16 +0000

> The reason is to save bandwidth.

For the user or for the website? If its for the website i dont see 200MB 
(difference between .iso and .xz) is making a big deal different, And if 
the complain real about that in Megabytes then there shouldnt be a 
direct download to the image not .xz nor as .iso it should be only used 
with torrents (or any similar protocol).

ArchLinux doing that:

https://archlinux.org/download/

But providing direct download to the image over https i dont see its 
justified to say it saves bandwidth by compressing it.(unmentioned/very 
minimal saving)

To save bandwidth as well by providing https is by using mirrors. (i 
think there are too many out there)

But if its for the user, Then i dont see any complains from users over 
downloading multiple GBs of NixOS or debian or qubes or...etc

 > 1) Host the uncompressed ISO yourself and send that link to your host
 > provider

So the alternative solution is harder than fixing the original problem?

When i report an issue that doesnt mean i dont know how to fix it or i 
cant find alternative solutions, Its not about me but its about the user 
specially new users, so i dont know how new user who paid 5 dollar for 
outside host provider to test Guix or using it, to go and host .iso 
image for guix.

You know whats the alternative easier solution for that user: he go and 
install NixOS or X OS and hes happy with that because it saves time and 
money and effort.

 > 2) Ask the host provider to download and uncompress the ISO on their
 > own. They should be able to do this because they will have to store the
 > ISO file on their servers anyways.

Thats really too much to ask because there are more than one form of 
compression and to do that for 1 or 2 users who want to use this x 
distro which doesnt use the traditional way and not from the famous 
distros (like debian or fedora) i can assure this is not gonna happen 
(at least anytime soon).

Leo Famulari:
> On Wed, Apr 07, 2021 at 05:31:57AM +0000, bo0od wrote:
>> I see that guix compress its image here:
>>
>> https://guix.gnu.org/en/download/
>>
>> Which im not sure why (I dont see any known project doing that),
> 
> The reason is to save bandwidth.
> 
>> But regardless to the reason behind it this is actually give some
>> problems to users who want to use Guix on outside server, Many host
>> providers nowadays they give the opportunity to install whatever the
>> user want from distros according to his wish from outside source but
>> one thing needed for that is the URL to the .iso , And the host gonna
>> download/run/import the .iso for the user.
> 
> I have two suggestions:
> 
> 1) Host the uncompressed ISO yourself and send that link to your host
> provider
> 
> 2) Ask the host provider to download and uncompress the ISO on their
> own. They should be able to do this because they will have to store the
> ISO file on their servers anyways.
>