4.1 Network Installer Advantages

The Network installer (also referred to as Netboot) image provides a small image (approximately 50MB in size compared to more than 2GB for the Desktop image) that can be used to install either the server or desktop-based Ubuntu environments. This option requires an internet connection to download additional packages during installation and uses the text-based installer.

While the Server and Desktop images provide very little choice in terms of configuration options during installation, the Network installer provides an extensive list of pre-defined software collections from which to choose during installation. The Ubuntu Desktop ISO image, for example, will only install the GNOME desktop environment. The Network installer, on the other hand, lets you install various desktop environments including KDE Plasma (Kubuntu) and LXQt (Lubuntu). Options are also available to install a basic server environment with optional additional server related packages such as web server, mail server and database software.

All of these packages can, of course, be added or removed after installation is complete when using the Server and Desktop images, but if you want to use a small installation image that can be quickly written to a USB drive and allows you to pre-install many software dependencies, the Network installer is an ideal option.