Re: ISO image: to xz or not to xz?

[Alexandre Oliva]

On Apr 28, 2021, Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> wrote:

> However, it’s apparently quite unusual to distribute compressed ISOs and
> some services/tools such as libosinfo require plain ISOs (uncompressed).

Indeed, install ISOs normally hold already-compressed filesystems or
files, so recompressing the .iso doesn't gain much if at all.

> Should we distribute the installation ISO without xz compression?

If the iso is so compressible, offering a compressed version for
download makes sense, but it will still be wasteful of install media.

Consider using something like a loopback-mounted squashfs for the bulk
of the data in the install media for a future release.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva, happy hacker                https://FSFLA.org/blogs/lxo/
   Free Software Activist                       GNU Toolchain Engineer
Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice
but very few check the facts.  Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>