Expect to see a larger Ubuntu desktop installation image size by the time the Yakkety Yak is released later this year.
It's official: the Ubuntu Live CD is dead. Ubuntu 12.10 will increase the maximum size of its disc image from 700MB to 800MB, thereby making it too big to fit onto traditional CD-R media.
The Ubuntu 12.04 will remain small enough to burn to a regular blank CD. Discussions early on in the development of Precise had seen talk of the Ubuntu image size being raised from the sub-700MB size of previous releases to as much as 750MB.
Kiss goodbye to burning Ubuntu onto a regualr CD-R: the default disc size for Ubuntu 12.04 has been set to 750MB. In raising the .iso limit by a mere 50MB developers will benefit from a buffer of breathing room. Often during the development cycle tough choices have to made as to what can ship on the CD and what can't.