Why are Ubuntu images so big?

Question

I just downloaded 23.10 and its 4.8GB. I went back and looked at the last few years releases- 23.10 - 4.8G- 23.04 - 4.6G- 22.10 - 3.8G- 22.04 - 3.4G- 21.10 - 2.9G- 21.04 - 2.6G- 20.10 - 2.7G- 20.04 - 2.5GMaybe it's a noob question, but I can't find anyone else commenting on this. Why has Ubuntu doubled in size since mid-2020? Why does it grow by so much with every new release?

snovymgodym · Accepted Answer

Snaps (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snap_(software)) may have something to do with it.Incidentally, Snaps are part the reason I'm abandoning Ubuntu for any of my personal machines.

maksut · Answer

It is not number of packages! 20.04 has 2977 packages and 23.10 has 1841 (from pkglist from distrowatch). After a quick eyeballing, example packages in 20.04 but NOT in 23.10: apache, g++, qemu, php, postgres, samba.
Also for comparison:
- MacOS installer ~14G [0]
- Windows 11 installer ~8G [1]
- Arch installer ~800M [2]
0: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201372
1: https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11
2: https://archlinux.org/download/

palata · Answer

I would say: because nobody cares, "memory is cheap".
Same reason why software gets slower every time hardware gets faster, why everything expects a fast internet connection, or why it's impossible to buy a movie without DRMs (say if you want to have the file and add subtitles for your language):
Users don't care, they keep using/buying the non-optimized stuff. And devs are more productive (and companies make more money) by not optimizing anything.

PaulHoule · Answer

You can mount the USB stick and look inside, right?

speedgoose · Answer

The cloud images have been more stable in size: https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/

asicsp · Answer

May be the newer ones are including multiple desktop environments (GNOME/XFCE/etc)?

goodboyjojo · Answer

my guess is they try to put everything in so the user doesn't have to. but personally i like to setup my linux based distros how i like it.

KomoD · Answer

Is that for the Desktop release or Server release?edit: seems like desktop

Why are Ubuntu images so big?

Snaps (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snap_(software)) may have something to do with it.
Incidentally, Snaps are part the reason I'm abandoning Ubuntu for any of my personal machines.

You can mount the USB stick and look inside, right?

The cloud images have been more stable in size: https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/

May be the newer ones are including multiple desktop environments (GNOME/XFCE/etc)?

my guess is they try to put everything in so the user doesn't have to. but personally i like to setup my linux based distros how i like it.

Is that for the Desktop release or Server release?
edit: seems like desktop