Build additional CD/DVD ISOs like Fedora does for their "spins". For example there could be a Games DVD ISO spin.
Also, occasionally release updated standard ISOs, for example Ubuntu Hardy ISO released in April, then after 2 months, in June release a standard ISO with the latest updates included, and so on...
This is to avoid the need for installing all patches since original release, can be very useful for people with slow or no Internet connections.
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Developer comments
In the Ubuntu world the specialist re-spins are provided by derivatives like Ubuntu studio and we do provide updated ISOs for the LTS releases.
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Ralf.Nieuwenhuijsen wrote on the 12 Mar 08 at 03:24
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Linux Mint (an ubuntu derivative) actually has this tool called remastersys in their unstable repository.
This does exactly as requested. It just backups all installed packages and settings on a cd, usb-stick or dvd and allows you to boot from it. The live-cd/dvd/usb also has an install option (just ubiquity) that installs (restores?) the setup.
Its unclear wether it also takes the /etc directory with it. I hope not.
So, wether it will also work on somebody else's pc isn't completely clear.
But I do not agree with the 'done' status. The easiest way to respin would be to take an installed system and turn it back into a live-cd/dvd. A tool that does that using a simple wizard would great. Questions for the wizard could be:
- Do you want a generic live-cd or a restore-cd?
(*) restore-cd
( ) generic-cd
If generic-cd is chosen, then ask:
- what should be the default localization?
- select a user for default skeleton (or none for ubuntu-default)
- select which parts of the system you want to backup:
[ ] hardware configuration (kernel, xorg, fstab, partition-layout etc.)
[ ] networking configuration (firewall, etc.)
[ ] servers (apache, mysql, etc.)
[ ] software (packages, sources.list, etc.)
[ ] gnome-configuration (system-wide)
The thing is, most people either want a full backup/restore cd, that they can also boot, _or_ they want to make a respin for their friends. Perhaps one that has multimedia-codecs and some other extra packages, tweaked panel configuration, etc.
The easiest way to do that would be using the above wizard.
But even a 'dumb' file-system copy, that excludes hardware and network oriented configuration would be great. It is still generic enough to run anywhere, but I can still setup a generic system and deploy it on for all my friends and all my clients.
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