On Tue, Jul 08, 2008 at 02:28:58PM +0300, Steve Goodman wrote: > I just got a new computer and wanted to try Ubuntu 8.04 on it. It was very > easy to install and I got up and running pretty quickly.
Welcome to Ubuntu. :-) > So here's my request: The partitioning wizard that I was presented with > during installation gave me two options: automatic and manual. I knew > nothing about partitioning or about different Linux file systems when I > installed, so I just did automatic. Since then I have read that a good > practice is to have a partition for the OS + apps and a separate partition > for user data (HOME). So I request that you make the partitioning wizard > guide me through that. It doesn't make sense that you only give the options > of automatic or full manual without any kind of explanation or guidance > unless you make "automatic" conform to best practices. I think something > better would be to add an option that is not full automatic, but provides me > with guidance, unlike the manual. With partitioning, there is always a trade-off between providing more flexibility by exposing more options, and risking scaring off a user who knows nothing about partitioning (nor wishes to know). I suspect the current approach is designed for maximal simplicity for the latter type of users. It's true that splitting home from OS+apps has advantages, but this approach presupposes at least a modest level of understanding of what partitions are. Adding an intermediary option between auto and manual does sound like it would be handy. I suspect one reason this isn't done currently is because when we build ISOs we have to test them very thoroughly, and a guided option would require significantly more testing effort than either auto or manual, since there'd be additional steps involved. > Now I'm trying to figure out how to > repartition my drive to align with this practice, and I hope I won't have to > reinstall everything. (Any guidance on this subject would make me very > appreciative.) First back up everything you want to keep to a USB key, CDRW, or spare harddrive. This probably includes everything under /home. You may be able to resize the existing partition to shrink it, then create a new partition and copy the files over. If not, or if something goes wrong, you can do a fresh reinstall, and then copy the files from the USB stick. For further advice, you might find http://answers.launchpad.com/ to be of value. Good luck! Bryce -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
