Re: history (Was Re: Corel/Debian Linux Installer)

[Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net>]

I have been very intersted to hear all this talk about partitioning Linux
drives, as this is a _real_ problem for most new users, and isn't easy to
discuss with them.

I would like to address the problem under a simple situation; that of
installing on a "new" machine.

Such machines rarely come with less than 4 Gig, although you will still
find machines being sold new with only 2 Gig, so here's my plan:

50 - 100 Meg          Root partition
100 Meg               Swap partition
.5 - 1 Gig            User partition
200 Meg               Home partition
100 Meg               Var  partition

Link /tmp to /var/tmp and the system is complete, and should have enough
disk space for installing almost any/all packages.

Even on a 2 gig machine, this leaves (under minimal numbers) quite a bit
of space left unpartitioned. (note: /usr /home and /var are probably not
going to be "primary" partitions, but root and swap should be)

It seems to me that this arrangement satisfies basic needs, and, if it
always leaves some disk space un-partitioned, the user has the option of
creating a partition for her particular needs, and mounting it where
appropriate. On a 4 gig drive this is going to be half the drive, which
leave a lot of room for creativity, even another whole system!

The older, smaller machines are not the typical machine for a new user
just getting into Linux. For those hackers who have not yet found us, the
junk machine they may run will most likely not fit this pattern, but will
most likely be able enough to manage on their own. Providing a "custom"
install path would satisfy their needs.

I know that some of you will object to this setup (and I'm not opposed to
hearing your reasons), but I think this structure gives the novice user a
system that is hard to strangle by disk consuption issues, and still
leaves some room for expansion where necessary.

Isn't this pretty much what Corel has planned?

Waiting is,

Dwarf
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      e-mail:  dwarf@polaris.net     Tallahassee, FL  32308

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