default partition scheme without /home - why ?

[Stephen John Smoogen]

On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 6:34 AM, Valent Turkovic
<valent.turkovic at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>  I installed fedora on 60GB hard drive, 30GB was in NTFS patitition
>  (windows) and other 30 was emply space.
>
>  I used Fedora 8 live CD and choose "make default partition scheme from
>  empty space" in anaconda. That made one primary partition for /boot
>  and one LVM volume that contained swap and /.
>  I was surprised that default scheme doesn't make a separate /home
>  partition in LVM volume.
>
>  Is that on purpose and if it why?
>


Ok the answer is "Yes it is on purpose." Why is probably the reason
/home gets removed from the installer every couple of revs and then
gets readded. Installation is HARD. Everytime an algorithm is figured
out for what a suitable partition size is done.. it gets kicked out
the window the next release because the default install grows 20% or
more. I prefer having a /home.. but I have to backup my system every 2
or 3 upgrades and repartition everything because what I took for / was
not big enough anymore.

I am all for a nice easy installer, but the people doing it really
need to read about what they are doing before they do it. And they
need to realize that its not as easy as operating the computer. Its
easy to operate a washing machine. You put the clothes in, you put
some detergent in, and you get out wet and hopefully clean clothing.
So it must be easy to install a washing machine?   I mean how hard can
it be? The washer has 2 inputs and one output. You get some glue from
the hardware store and connect up the hoses just like the diagram
says.. and yet plumbers get called in weekend after weekend to bail
out basements filled with water from doing it yourself.

I say this from having spent a weekend cleaning up Windows installs
because someone thought "Oh I will just reinstall my system" and then
played around with various options and ended up not being able to log
in anymore. Before that it was a MacOS system for someone else. Heck I
have screwed up enough systems myself but I really don't mind bailling
out the basement when I find I did something wrong. In this case,
trying to figure out what size partitions are needed for the generic
user is where you end up deep in plumbing land.



-- 
Stephen J Smoogen. -- CSIRT/Linux System Administrator
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed
in a naughty world. = Shakespeare. "The Merchant of Venice"