It's fairly common for CDs, DVDs, etc. to be made available at BALUG and other User Group meetings.

These are CDs/DVDs/ISOs and such typically currently (subject to availability and/or request) made available by Michael Paoli at BALUG and some other user group meetings (e.g. Berkeley Unix User Group (BUUG), Bay Area Debian (BAD), Berkeley Linux Users Group, Ubuntu Hour (San Francisco & Berkeley), and sometimes San Francisco Linux Users' Group (SF-LUG) and others).\ Other folks may also bring (some of) these and/or additional CDs, DVDs, etc.

Notes: qty (quantity) 0 or marked with *, architecture, EOL - see also Notes further below (towards bottom of page).

Also, if there are Open Source images you are particularly interested in obtaining that don't at all show as listed below, perhaps inquire, as noted further below, and we may add such to our "inventory".

And don't forget, CD-RW and DVD+-RW media is rewritable - so don't toss those out just because their data is outdated. Donations of rewritable or blank media or funding thereof also appreciated.

The listing of images has been split into multiple tables, with tables as follows (and placement in appropriate table may not always be up-to-the-minute):

• Recommended - most/more current
• Alpha/Beta/Testing/Unstable - is or based upon such, or not yet production/stable release - for those that are more adventurous and understand the risks
• Supported / not "too old"* - still supported or not "too old" (not currently more/most recommended/current, but still potentially fairly useful)
• Unsupported - no longer supported and generally no longer recommended; note that these may only be made available by specific advance request (by default typically won't bring these older CDs/DVDs to meetings, but may have the images on optical media or available to possibly "burn" to media)

Within each table distributions/images are not sorted in any recommended order, but rather are generally sorted by distribution name (some variations (e.g. "spin") within may be sorted separately by that particular name, especially where that's a different name), then by version/release/time, generally newest first, and within that by architecture (generally by most supported/promoted/used architecture by the release, to least).

most/more current

is or based upon such, or not yet production/stable release - for those that are more adventurous and understand the risks

still supported or not "too old" (not currently more/most recommended/current, but still potentially fairly useful)

no longer supported and generally no longer recommended; note that these may only be made available by specific advance request (by default typically won't bring these older CDs/DVDs to meetings, but may have the images on optical media or available to possibly "burn" to media)

qty (quantity) 0 or marked with * \

• qty (quantity) 0 \ If you see one you're interested in that shows qty (quantity) 0 (zero) (that indicates have the ISO image, but don't have it presently on CD/DVD media), ask in advance, and we may be able to burn one for you or copy to blank CD-R, DVD+-R, CD-RW, DVD+-RW, or suitable flash storage (USB "thumb drive", or SD (SDSC), SDHC, microSD, or microSDHC. It may also help (or be required) to bring suitable blank (or rewritable) media in such cases. If not in advance, we may (or may not, depending who's there with what equipment and images, power and time availability at venue, etc.) possibly be able to burn you a CD/DVD or write bootable image of same to flash storage for you at meeting itself. If you're hoping for either of those services (where it shows qty 0), it's probably best to inquire in advance to the appropriate group's list (e.g. BALUG-Talk BUUG, etc.) or check in advance with person(s) you know that would likely be attending and willing and able to provide such.\ Also, if there are Open Source images you are particularly interested in obtaining that don't at all show as listed above, perhaps inquire, as noted above, and we may add such to our "inventory".\
• qty (quantity) marked with * \ If you see a quantity marked with *, that generally indicates, "our gift to you, for your donation of …". Generally donate some specified amount (e.g. $1.00 USD or $2.00 USD), and as your "free" thank you gift, get one media copy of the ISO. The reasons we may not just be simply handing these out for free to any and all takers, and without any donated contribution, may be or include: defraying cost(s) (obtain/replace media, carrier, label/imprint, burner incremental wear & tear costs, etc.), more valuable/versatile/expensive media (e.g. -RW, DVD, +-RW), and/or other reasons. And remember to not discard rewritable media (e.g. +-RW) when you're done with the image/data on that media - you can rewrite it, or donate the media back to us and we can reuse it. Also, I recommend (and practice myself), on rewritable media, use method that easily allows rewriting of the written/printed labeling on the media, e.g. I use wet-erase markers, so damp bit of cloth/paper can be used to wipe the obsoleted labeling off of the media, and one can write freshly with similar marker again, and repeat as needed.

media - if providing media for an image to be written/"burned" to, please ensure the media is of sufficiently large capacity. >=720,000 KiB is large enough for any standard CD ISO, >=4,596,992 KiB is large enough for any standard DVD ISO.

architecture\

• Check the documentation for the distribution, release, and version, for what specific CPUs and hardware are, or likely are supported, or generally known/believed to work.
• Intel/AMD architectures - Intel 80386 and successor/compatible CPUs are generally the most widely supported among the distributions, though some distributions also support additional architectures. Distributions use varying descriptors, but generally use i386, i586, or i686 to indicate an Intel 80386 or compatible/successor 32-bit CPUs, and amd64 or x86_64 to indicate an AMD or Intel 64-bit CPU upwardly compatible with the Intel 80386 family of CPUs. Note that in many cases the distribution's architecture name may not, or may no longer, well indicate the minimum CPU required. E.g. most current distributions supporting 32-bit architectures with an architecture name of i386 no longer support the 80386 CPU.
• Note also that some distributions also provide ISOs/images/media that supports more than one architecture - e.g. by allowing various alternative kernels to be booted and different architecture versions of packages to be installed.
• Some specific distribution details follow, but in all cases one should refer to the documentation for the distribution, release, and version, for what specific CPUs and hardware are, or likely are supported, or generally known/believed to work.
• Debian
  • i386 80386 CPUs no longer supported as of Debian 3.1 "Sarge", but otherwise, i386 architecture supports upwardly compatible CPUs - e.g. 80486 and compatible or upwardly compatible.
• Ubuntu
  • i386 apparently requires CPU that shows the PAE flag as of >= 12.04 LTS, at least to work off the CD/ISO boot image, and >= 12.10 no longer makes any non-pae kernel available. Requirements for derivatives of Ubuntu and other Ubuntu based images may be different. For lots of gory detail, see, e.g.: Bug #930447 "Unable to start Ubuntu 12.04 live CD with syslinux ..." : Bugs : "linux" package : Ubuntu.

End-Of-Life (EOL)\

• ** support is or may be quite limited, e.g. to only certain architecture(s), limited portion(s) of distribution/release, or only highly critical security bug fixes - see the more detailed information on the release/version of the distribution for more specific details.
• ~ date is approximate/estimated/guestimated
• (live) - indicates a "live" version, intended to be run live from CD, DVD, USB or similar, and (generally) not installed, and (generally) has no security or (critical) bug fix updates/support software releases, other than release of subsequent newer images
• (rolling) - indicates a "rolling" release - continually or very frequently updated (e.g. weekly or more frequently), thus the images are always quickly out-of-date, however they may be one of the means to install the distribution or run it "live".

Much thanks to various folks that have in many cases provided these CDs, DVDs, ISO images, etc. (e.g. Grant Bowman, Elizabeth (Lyz) K. Joseph, the Ubuntu Local Community (LoCo) Team California, Eric P. Scott, Bobbie Sellers, and many others).