The switch doesn't really affect me much either. I do think it is
"nostalgically sad" when I look back on my own history... When I first
installed Linux as a desktop gui, I didn't have any dvd drives, and I
didn't have a wired line for Internet (phone dialup or highspeed). Just
wireless a neighbor was letting me steal. I didn't have any strong
opinions on what flavor to install. I just wanted something with that
cool desktop that was on my knoppix live cd that someone gave me!

I spent hours reading documentation on websites for all the big players. I
remember being so confused that all of these companies had 3+ files to
download and burn to a cd. Did I need all of them for an install like I
do with floppies? Did my Debian install fail because I didn't start the
right cd or because I don't know how to "md5-sum hashtag a grub".

When I finally found and read about Ubuntu and got a clear understanding
that I needed this one 680 MB file on a cd, I was really happy. Especially
since I was down to just a few CDs left to burn. :) CDs are still my
preferred medium for "live" installations, but I only have one system left
that can't boot directly from usb.