Feature Request: Better partitioning wizard

[Andrew Sayers]

Partitioning is one of those topics that you can argue round forever
without any danger of reaching agreement about the general case.  I'm
not sure what arguments you've read about the "/ + /home" approach, but
I found a recent discussion on this list fairly interesting:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2008-May/004207.html

The short version of the argument is that two partitions can solve some
problems, but there are better solutions to the problems that ordinary
people have in practice.  The only way I would expect you to benefit
from a second partition, based on the usage you've described, is if you
wanted to dual boot between two Linux distributions (say, Ubuntu and Red
Hat), and maintain a shared /home partition.  My advice would be to
investigate how to repartition, but not to actually do anything
until/unless you need to.  Repartitioning now is no easier than
repartitioning later, and later you'll have more skill and perhaps
better tools to do the job.

If you really want to add a /home partition, which as Bryce suggests
isn't something to consider lightly, you probably want to use gparted
(available in all good repos).

I'm ambivalent about whether to include an intermediate option, but I
think a collection of "roles" would be a good choice if we do include
one.  Roles could include "standard" (as automatic), "multiple Linux
distributions" (/ and /home), "mail server", (/ and /var), and so on.
As well as helping people with less common use cases, it would give us
an excuse to add documentation that's only visible to those that care.
Example descriptions could include:

Standard: this partitions your disk in a way that has been found to be
the most appropriate for ordinary use, based on experience from a
variety of operating systems

Multiple Linux distributions: this partitions your disk in a way that
allows you to share your home directory with other Linux distributions
installed on your computer

Mail server: this partitions your disk in a way that ensures mail will
still be delivered if your root partition fills up.

	- Andrew