default partition scheme without /home - why ?

[James Hubbard]

On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 6:10 AM, Benny Amorsen <benny+usenet at amorsen.dk> wrote:
> Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com> writes:
>
>  > Benny Amorsen wrote:
>  >>
>  >>> What about a separate /usr, or a separate /var?  These can both be
>  >>> quite beneficial,
>  >>
>  >> What are the benefits of separate /usr and /var? I can think of two:
>  >> 1) one partition getting full doesn't affect the rest of the system
>  >> 2) hard links aren't possible across partitions
>  >>
>  >> Are there others? Disk quota could help with 1), and is 2) really a
>  >> great benefit on the desktop?
>  >
>  > The big one is that when you reinstall (which every fedora user should
>  > have done 8 times already with no end in sight), you can tell the
>  > installer not to format your /home partition and keep your own data.
>
>  I haven't actually tried reinstalling. My current laptop was installed
>  around FC3.
>
>  Anyway, I was talking about /usr and /var, not about /home.

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.

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.

Just my $0.02 which isn't worth what it used to be.