[CoLoCo] brainstorms Re: permission question

[Kevin Fries]

> This seems like a great improvement. Does it exist in 8.04? The
> language in the wiki is ambiguous.
> 
> While not perfect the open source development process seems more
> responsive to adding/fixing user friendly/desired features. Compare
> and contrast to M$.

Actually this is an Ubuntu only thing.  Most distros default behavior is
to have a separate /home, and many have a separate /boot also.  These
are great features that harken back to "Old *Nix" based systems.  It has
a tendency to confuse first time Windows converts though.  I firmly
believe that is a large part of the reason why Ubuntu set up this way.

Here is a perfect example of why I think the one partition was a short
sided decision, and I am glad it is finally getting re-examined (by the
way, when I brought this up a year ago, I got hammered).

When I install Ubuntu for desktop, I ALWAYS create a separate /boot
and /home directory.  On servers where files are not designed to be
stored and retrieved as files (i.e. a mail server, a web server, etc) I
always create a separate /boot and /srv folder.  On servers that both
serve files in general (cups, web, anonymous ftp,  mail) and store and
retrieve file systems (samba, nfs, gfs, etc) by named users, I create
all three.  The OS should always stand alone, and separate from user
assessable files.  If the server is highly mission critical, I often
create a separate /var/log to prevent logs from overloading the OS
partition.

This came in very useful just the other day... I tried to upgrade my
home machine from Gutsy to Hardy.  It turned ugly.  The upgrade did not
go well because I was trying it from CD instead of live over the
Internet (my satellite system does not like the volume of traffic when I
do these types of upgrades).  My system was trashed.  But, since all my
files were on a separate partition, recovery was only an hour or so
away... I kept my partitions as is, allowed the install to
reformat /boot, /, and swap, but leave /home alone.  My system was back,
my desktop just as I left it, but a few programs missing... no big deal,
apt-get install ...

Keeping data and programs separate is an old fashion idea that Ubuntu
got away from... its is a good idea to re-discover.

-- 
Kevin Fries
Senior Linux Engineer
Computer and Communications Technology, Inc
A Division of Japan Communications Inc.