bug#47633: Provide direct download to .iso

bug#47633: Provide direct download to .iso

[bo0od]

Hi There,

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), 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.

This is cant be achieved because there is no direct URL to the .iso, And 
it causes some problems as well check #47632

ThX!

bug#47633: Provide direct download to .iso

[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.

bug#47633: Provide direct download to .iso

[Julien Lepiller]

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Well, providing a .iso with compression would hopefully be similar to .iso.xz, and it would allow us to provision guix directly in gnome-boxes etc, that rely on osinfo-db (we have guix there, but no URL because of the extension).

Le 8 avril 2021 14:50:58 GMT-04:00, Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name> a écrit :
>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.

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bug#47633: Provide direct download to .iso

[bo0od]

 > 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.
> 

bug#47633: Provide direct download to .iso

[Maxim Cournoyer]

Hello,

I'm happy to say this will be resolved with the soon-to-be-released
v1.3.0 release; see commit 82c0f34c7e (maint: Do not xz-compress ISO
images).

Closing!

Maxim