[Gllug] ext3 filesystem suddenly full

[Pete Ryland]

On 22/06/07, Nix <nix at esperi.org.uk> wrote:
> On 22 Jun 2007, Jason Clifford verbalised:
> > I remain shocked that distros still offer a single partition solution by
> > default. I just don't think it is ever appropriate.
>
> It's appropriate on very small systems: one box I use regularly has less
> than 80Mb available. Cutting that up seems pointless.

One could argue that it's also appropriate on desktop systems for new
users with *lots* of disk space.

The main argument for separating the partitions is to avoid the
situation that one disk filling up affects other parts of the system,
something which has saved me many a time indeed on both servers and
desktops.

However, on the new-user desktop with a big disk (like the 10s of GB
of modern stock PCs), if the user is reasonably non-technical, I can't
see him/her filling up the disk at all *unless* the partitions are
artificially restricted (e.g. kernel updates filling up / when there's
still 10GB available on each of /home, /usr and /var).  The user that
is likely to fill up 100GB is probably also the user who has the
know-how to select a more appropriate layout on install.  And even
then, a non-technical user will understand "your disk is getting full"
and be able to fix the problem, but will probably not be able to fix
"your /var partition is getting full".

I think a single-partition default is fine for those who do defaults,
like new users.  Still arguable, but not something to be "shocked"
about.

Pete
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