Feature suggestions: optionally placing home folder into separate partition during ubuntu install

[Daniel Hollocher]

> That is a common misconception. Reinstalling Ubuntu on the same
> partition doesn't lose the user's data either.
>
> A problem that is both real and more interesting, is working out why so
> many people have that misconception, and how we can correct it.

Is this really a misconception?  I thought there was a point in time
that you did need to have a separate /home for what we are talking
about.

Also, do you know how widespread the policy is?  ie, is it Ubuntu
only,  debian based distros, or all of linux?