Re: which to use: ext3, JFS, XFS, ReiserFS? [Was: new user question: debian on a Thinkpad T61]

["Jimmy Wu" <jimmywu013+debian@gmail.com>]

Wow, thanks for the many quick responses.  I'm doing a "group reply"
to the list by quoting everyone in one message.  Not sure if this is
top-posting, bottom-posting, or conversational-posting, but if this
goes against mailing list etiquette, please tell me/flame me gently,
and I won't do it again.

On Jan 18, 2008 4:27 PM, Damon L. Chesser <damon@damtek.com> wrote:
> This question is very close to "what is the best religion for me?"

Haha, I like that :-)

> [...] Use
> ext3 and be done with it.  Tried, true good rescue tools if you need
> them (I never have).  IF you need the other fs, you would know it.  Your
> "killer app" would tell you to use fs $X.  For a home user, ext3 just
> works.

Given this and the general gist of the other responses, I am thinking
I will just go with ext3 for everything.

On Jan 18, 2008 4:31 PM, Brian McKee <map@map-heb.com> wrote:
> Let me throw out a few more unsubstantiated statements.....
> This is my opinion 'cause you asked for it....

I appreciate the input.

> Unless you have a real need for something special, just use ext3.
> It is the most widely used and supported, and has a good track record.
> None of the other file systems offer enough of an advantage for your
> kind of application to make them worth wandering off the main trail
> so to speak.

As stated above, I guess I will stick with ext3.

> xfs sure does copy and delete really large files faster - I do use it
> for video at home.

How big do files have to be before one starts to notice the advantages
of XFS?  I don't think, in the course of normal usage, that I will
have any really huge files aside from a few isos, with the largest
possible size being a 4GB DVD iso.  Then again, isos are usually meant
to be downloaded and burned, and possibly deleted later, not to be
copied/shuffled around on an HD, so it probably won't be worth making
an xfs partition for the isos, right?


On Jan 18, 2008 6:10 PM, Александър Л. Димитров <aleks_d@gmx.de> wrote:
> What would you need FS-performance for? You're not going to host a data base, are
> you? If it's a personal laptop then performance differences between modern file
> systems won't be noticable at all. Don't mind those benchmarks, that's all
> hogwash. Yeah Reiser performs well in some benchmarks, but I've never noticed
> _any_ difference, instead that takes an awful amount of time to mount it after
> an unclean unmount.

Well, if fs performance isn't noticeable, then I'll drop that as a
criterion for choosing fs and go with ext3, which seems to be the most
reliable.

> Why would you want to modify your laptop's partition table? Your better off not
> to misuse and abuse that small disk anyways, they tend to have rather short life
> spans.

If I want to reinstall stuff, I may want to resize partitions.  I
didn't mention before that I have Windows Vista sitting in a 30 GB
partition at the beginning of the drive.  It came with the laptop, and
I shrank it down using the built-in partition editor to the smallest
size it would let me, and I don't plan on touching it unless there is
some hardware issue or I run across Windows only software at
school/work.  For such a relatively high-end laptop, Vista runs
sluggishly at best.  There is no instant, responsive feel, as opening
anything involves a slight delay.  The first time Vista starts to give
me problems, I'm going to wipe it and either shrink its partition and
replace it with XP or possibly give all the space to Debian,
repartitioning/reinstalling as necessary.  I hope my HD won't complain
about that.

> Sure. But who the hell uses JFS on a laptop?

:-) Some of the forums google turned up had people who did, and who
claimed it worked well

> > (5) ReiserFS is the best choice for /var.
>
> Arguably, yes. My /var is still Reiser, too.

So would you advise that I do the same?  As previously stated, I am
leaning towards keeping things simple and making everything, including
/var ext3 to be consistent.

> > (7) Mixing too many file systems in one system will degrade performance
>
> Yes. And there's no need mixing fs' on a laptop, either.

See comment above on /var.



Thanks again to everyone who responded!

-- 
Jimmy
Registered Linux User #454138