On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 11:43 AM, James Hubbard <jameshubbard@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 10:36 AM, Yaakov Nemoy <loupgaroublond@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 8:30 AM, James Hubbard <jameshubbard@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > I used to do that for my desktop and laptop. Those that really need a > > > separate /usr and /var already know who they are, what they need, and > > > how to set those up. I don't believe that the default needs to set > > > those up. > > > > > > For most desktop users especially new ones that need just the regular > > > setup, it's probably not important. I've been recommending to our > > > sysadmins and users setting up their own system, to use a separate / > > > and /home partition for about 3 years now. I usually just tell them to > > > give 10-15GB of space to /. > > > > > > As others have mentioned, it makes a re-install with a format of / > > > easy to do. On my own system, I'm just using 5.6GB of the 15GB that > > > I've set aside for /. I move data that's not important to keep in > > > home over there whenever home starts getting full. > > > > Doing Smolt devel work ordinarily doesn't take alot of space. > > Uncompresesd though, working with a copy of the production data can > > take over 10GB in /var alone. Ideally, I should be mounting /var > > somewhere different too. If I had a desktop, I would probably have a > > small but fast HD dedicated to it, but I prefer laptops. > > > > Since you're working 10GB of data in var should the default minimum > size of / be at 25GB? You might need 2 copies of uncompressed data > right? > > > > Just the fact that there are so many emails and differing ideas about > > > what a / and /home default partitioning means that whatever is chosen > > > probably won't make everyone happy. As the novice moves to a more > > > intermediate level, they'll figure out what they need or want and do > > > it themselves. Those that don't care to know more will probably be > > > happy with single / partition. > > > > > > > An ordinary user isn't necessarily Aunt Tillie and her Amazing Flea > > Circus, but rather some with his or her unique needs. There are a > > million people coming from Windows who were told that Linux is better > > for Java or Ruby development. They come for the Compiz and stay for > > the LAMP. They may try convincing coworkers to use Fedora as well. > > These people are technical minded, but don't have the time to futz > > around with partitions either. I think before Fedora is ready to > > conquer the home market, we need to be able to conquer the power user > > who has very little extra time on his hands. > > Okay, I'm sorry I probably shouldn't have used ordinary here. It's a > loaded term and I don't really know what the ordinary user is. Does > someone? So by the definition above Aunt Tillie isn't unique and > unique is ordinary? > > What user is the default partition layout option targeting? (Perhaps > I missed or have forgotten that it was said in the other 80 messages.) > If Fedora is targeting the millions of Windows user switching to some > linux distribution, shouldn't it be left as a single partition? Every > windows box you get typically has one big partition for the OS and > user data. There is a hidden recovery partiton on many of those boxes > as well. Many of those users barely know what a hard drive. I doubt > that 75% of those even know what a partition is. I would guess that > many of the so called windows "power users" will even know what a > partition is. (How do you define a "power user" is in this instance?) > > As other people have mentioned before, I doubt that it's possible to > come up with a good default layout rule that will make everyone happy. No, but this is why I recommended a tool that lets the user know what's going on. I think users are capable of understanding the difference between file systems, as they are already capable of plugging in flash drives and external hard drives. I think if there are good graphical management tools, with some user testing, it's quite possible to split the hard drive up into several partitions. This is why I used the word SIG. Someone would have to coordinate the development of such a tool, and possibly and online resizing feature for ext3/4 plus any other user testing we would need. Getting a message "we do things differently to protect your data, but here's how to fix the current problem" is quite clear. Furthermore, the users that don't know what a hard drive probably don't know what a database is either. If their system grows uncontrollably then something is probably very wrong with the system anyways. These people don't need graphical tools either, because it's not something they will ever bother with. Users that do need graphical tools are ex other-OS powerusers and probably need a bit of hand holding before they feel comfortable using command line tools to tinker with LVM and such. They may not be adverse to tools like GParted either, but we need to tell them what to look for. Windows Vista is pretty bad at alot of things, but one thing it is good at is when you search for 'disk management' or 'partition'. Then it takes you exactly where you need to be. The power user has already found this. The regular user never will (one can hope). -Yaakov -- fedora-devel-list mailing list fedora-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list
