What is on the DVD Edition of Ubuntu?

Solution 1:

11.10 and newer

The DVD contains extra software:

The new DVD image is an extension of our current CD image to include all the language packs and some other useful applications, such as Inkscape, GIMP, Pitivi, and a more complete LibreOffice suite. All the packages that used to be on the DVD are still available from the archive.

The list of extra packages is available in this seed file, and here's the full manifest.

Here are some of the major packages that are probably the most interesting for end users, (there are many more listed in the file so here are the highlights):

More drivers:

NVIDIA and ATI Drivers
bcmwl-kernel-source

Extra desktop Packages:

XChat GNOME (IRC client)
More complete LibreOffice suite
nautilus-gksu
GIMP (Image editor)
Inkscape (Vector image editor)
vim-tiny and vim-gnome (Text editor)
Liferea (RSS reader)
Pitivi (Video editor)
openprinting-ppds-extra (More PPDs for more printer support)
Screem (HTML editor)
Iced Tea plugin (Java)

Other:

Flac command line tools
More dictionaries
A bunch of documentation packages (monodoc, ubuntu-faqguide, basic HOWTOs from LDP, GIMP manuals)
The following language packs: en es xh pt de fr
Localization files and fonts

More about seeds here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SeedManagement

Solution 2:

For 11.04 and earlier

The DVD contains all language packs, plus a few additional applications.

From http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/downloadmirrors#dvd:

Don't be confused, even though DVDs can hold far more data than the typical Ubuntu CD, the main benefit of the DVD downloads is to get access to all of the available language packs. Most people will be fine with the standard CD installer. There are fewer download locations for the DVD images and this list is updated less frequently than for the CD images.

Solution 3:

In addition to the other answers w/ the alternate area text, here's a list of the files on the i386 version of Maverick:

http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu-iso/DVDs/ubuntu/maverick/release/ubuntu-10.10-dvd-i386.list

Solution 4:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/alternative-downloads

DVD downloads

Don't be confused, even though DVDs can hold far more data than the typical Ubuntu CD, the main benefit of the DVD downloads is to get access to all of the available language packs. Most people will be fine with the standard CD installer. There are fewer download locations for the DVD images and this list is updated less frequently than for the CD images.