The upcoming version 5.0 of Debian GNU/Linux, codenamed Lenny, provides for the first time not only image downloads for CD and DVD, but also for Blu-ray disks, along with live images.

Debian project leader Steve McIntyre, on the developer mailing list, describes the version as including the "biggest change" in recent history. Because a standard Blu-ray disk holds up to 25 Gbytes of data, McIntyre continues, "for the first time in several years, users should be able to fit all of the packages for one architecture on a single disc. Woo!" The caveat: the resulting images use disk space and bandwidth on the Debian server. McIntyre's solution is to impose limits on the number of images produced weekly. Image downloads for all popular architectures should be available as torrents or alternatively via the Jigdo tool. As Alexander Reichle-Schmehl explains in Debian News, Jigdo creates images by assembling .deb files into one .iso file. All in all by McIntyre's calculations for Debian Lenny, there should be 414 CD images, 64 DVD images and 13 Blu-ray disk images assembled for each full set.

More news about Lenny is that the Debian-Live team headed by Daniel Baumann is working on official live images. With these distributions users can employ Linux off the CD without needing to install it.

It's only a matter of time, according to McIntyre: "We're also going to be looking for testers very soon. If you'd like to help, please let us know." Lenny was originally scheduled for September, but there were delays. Beginning of October, Reichle-Schmehl had posted a list of work still to be done and how to contribute to it. The project is also soliciting for slogans for the Lenny release.

The Debian team itself is currently assembled along with other projects at the SYSTEMS IT conference in Munich October 21-24.

The upcoming version 5.0 of Debian GNU/Linux, codenamed Lenny, provides for the first time not only image downloads for CD and DVD, but also for Blu-ray disks, along with live images.