14 DAY TRIAL // During the Ubuntu Developer Summit for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin), Canonical decided to increase the size of the ISO image from 700 MB to 750 MB, targeting USB flash drives instead of CDs.
This change will allow the Ubuntu developers to add more packages that were requested by users, and not be stressed out about the 700 MB limit of the old and deprecated Compact Discs (CD).
With the Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) release, Canonical also started to distribute a DVD ISO image of about 1.5 GB in size, containing a lot of popular apps, such as Synaptic Package Manager, PiTiVi, The GIMP or a full version of LibreOffice.
Some users might get upset because of this decision, as they will have to download more data (especially the ones with limited bandwidth). However, USB sticks are very common and cheap these days, and we have to agree that this is the future, and CDs are the past.
In the mean time, Daily Builds of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) were made available for download and testing last week, having 700 MB in size, at the moment.