Why is the Ubuntu 12LTS 4MB bigger than all the blank CDs I have? I had to burn it on to a DVD. This never used to be the case.
It depends on architecture of your system for which you are installing Ubuntu. If your system is 32 bit then Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 32bit CD image comes under 700 MB. But if your system is of 64 bit architecture then Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64bit CD image crosses 700 or 750 MB.
Other higher versions of Ubuntu 32bit & 64bit CD images even cross 800 MB. Thus require a DVD. Eg. Ubuntu 13.04 CD image is around 850 MB. Following link may help you why it is so:
Appart of the difference between architecture, Ubuntu team was struggling to decide what software is preferable to ship into the Live CD. Various programs were removed, but the CD image still grows with new software that was added into the image. There was a list of software that had to go because space constrains:
Hence, Ubuntu grew until the point the Live image won't fit at all in a CD. For that they made the mini.iso which is a text based installer (alá Debian) for the system. If you are looking into <700MB images, give the mini.iso a try. Otherwise, you can use USB sticks for a good deal.
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