{Solved} Unofficial vs Official ISO Question

[DarthMole]

Hello! First thank you for any time and help you spend on this post, it is very much appreciated. Second, while I have installed a couple different distros so far, on different machines, and can fumble around until I get done what I need to I'm still very much a newb. I'm currently dual booting MX Linux on my 2015 MacBook Pro 13inch. While it runs pretty well I feel that Debian's reputation of being rock solid is better suited to my needs.

So I went to download the distro, and after watching a few YouTube videos came across the existence of the non-free unofficial ISOs to help with hardware compatibility. I found those no problem and was about to download the ISO linked here:

https://cdimage.debian.org/images/unoff ... 4/iso-dvd/

When I noticed that the official ISO linked here:

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... 4/iso-dvd/

Had two more ISO files than the unofficial. I admit I was confused because I figured the non-free, with what I assumed to be more hardware support, would be larger than one that didn't, aka the official. I'm not sure if I'm assuming incorrectly, am in the wrong folder, or what but any clarification or help, as mentioned above, would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Read the non-free firmware section on the pages to which you have linked. That's the only difference between the images and the firmware packages are so small that they make no practical difference to the size. You can use the second & third official ISOs with the non-official image if you need the extra software and do not have an internet connection. Please read the Debian CD FAQ before asking any more questions.

[sunrat]

Those extra files are DVD2 and DVD3 which contain extra software packages only really useful if you don't have an internet connection. Normally software packages are installed from the online repositories. The unofficial non-free image contains only extra firmware to help with hardware compatibility. If you don't have internet, DVDs 2 & 3 can be used to install extra software packages including if you used the non-free image.

Snap HoaS! Posting anyway as I don't like wasting all this typing.

[DarthMole]

Read the non-free firmware section on the pages to which you have linked. That's the only difference between the images and the firmware packages are so small that they make no practical difference to the size. You can use the second & third official ISOs with the non-official image if you need the extra software and do not have an internet connection. Please read the Debian CD FAQ before asking any more questions.

Thank you very much for the clarification. If I ever find a FAQ that can dynamically answer my specific questions/clarifications, regardless of its initial content, I'll make sure I don't waste that forum's time. Hopefully I won't need to ask anymore questions here as it seems that my way of thinking, and the questions it may spawn, doesn't fit well with this community's mods. Have a nice day.

[DarthMole]

Those extra files are DVD2 and DVD3 which contain extra software packages only really useful if you don't have an internet connection. Normally software packages are installed from the online repositories. The unofficial non-free image contains only extra firmware to help with hardware compatibility. If you don't have internet, DVDs 2 & 3 can be used to install extra software packages including if you used the non-free image.

Snap HoaS! Posting anyway as I don't like wasting all this typing.

Thank you for the clarification and information.

[sunrat]

We do expect people to do a little searching before posting but sometimes information is a little hard to find. You are welcome to ask questions here if you can't find the information you are looking for. That's what the forum is for.