CentOS

On the main download page for CentOS7-- https://www.centos.org/download, there are three buttons to select from for downloading CentOS7; however, there is no real explanation as to which one the user should select.

There is: DVD, Everything and Minimal.

Minimal - to me seems appropriate for a base DVD image for doing network (kickstart) installs.
Everything - apparently comes with all CentOS7 packages plus extra packages that are not automatically installed, but can be installed manually well after initial installation is complete.
And DVD - well, I don't understand why that one exist. Perhaps someone could shed some light on these descriptions? Personally, I think it makes sense to add their purposes/descriptions to the page; or at a least a link the indicates to determine which one to select go to 'this page.'

The ones most likely to be used are minimal (does what it says on the tin), netinstall (also does what it says) and the DVD which contains everything that you can select and install from the GUI installer. The "Everything" DVD is intended for people who will be setting up local mirrors so that that can just clone that and use it as a base. It contains packages that cannot be selected from the GUI installer.

Perhaps http://mirror.centos.org/centos/7/isos/ ... README.txt helps.

Minimal is fine if you intend to "yum install somepackage" later on after the install.
DVD can be used if, for example, you want a full working Gnome desktop installation and you don't have network access. This image may also be useful if you intend to do installations on multiple computers. This way you don't have to download the packages over and over again, which you might need to do when doing installs from the Minimal or NetInstall images.
Everything is very rarely useful. It might be useful if you want to set up a local mirror for further installs, but not much else.
NetInstall allows you to install any combination of packages you want, but it requires a network connection.
Live images are most useful if you want to "test drive" CentOS on your computer without actually installing it.

Most people would be happy using the DVD image.

Others have given some of the rationale behind the images. Look though at the sizes:

• 4.0G CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD-1503-01.iso
  7.1G CentOS-7-x86_64-Everything-1503-01.iso
  696M CentOS-7-x86_64-LiveCD-1503.iso
  1.0G CentOS-7-x86_64-LiveGNOME-1503.iso
  1.2G CentOS-7-x86_64-LiveKDE-1503.iso
  636M CentOS-7-x86_64-Minimal-1503-01.iso
  360M CentOS-7-x86_64-NetInstall-1503.iso

NetInstall, LiveCD and Minimal will fit on a ordinary CD. DVD, LiveGNOME and LiveKDE will need a DVD. Everything cannot fit on a DVD.

Version 6.6 has a slightly different approach:

• 4.3G CentOS-6.6-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso
  1.2G CentOS-6.6-x86_64-bin-DVD2.iso
  383M CentOS-6.6-x86_64-minimal.iso
  222M CentOS-6.6-x86_64-netinstall.iso

Most of the time you only needed DVD1, which is roughly the present DVD. Sometimes though you needed both DVDs, that is the equivalent to today's Everything. Images are just getting bigger!

Everything fits on a dual layer disc. It's not intended to be used from a disc though really.

Sorry gentlemen, I have been away from the site in quite some time.

Thank you both for the detailed explanations, they make sense now.