Comfortable partition size?

[ac]

David Stubblebine wrote:
> I just put a roomy 120 GB drive in my Dell C800.  What is a  
> "comfortable" size for my ubuntu partition?

Less than about 6GB will make you think a lot sometimes. I use about 
10 or 12 GB for an easy life.
My swap partition (essential) is usually about 1GB, or I accept the 
default size. My pc has 1GB ram and the swap is rarely if ever used 
afaik (with my use profile).

I heard that with recent kernel versions, the relationship between ram 
and swap size is less important than it used to be.

Your data will also reside inside your 12GB partition alongside your 
system. It is a good idea to make available another larger data 
partition. this can be used simply to read and write data from/to, and 
data can be separate from the system. The great advantage of this will 
be that you can overwrite your linux distro version with something 
else, and leave the data partition untouched. Linux is very easy to 
install, this might happen more than you now expect. Also, 
inexperienced (but very proper) ambitions may lead to a hosed 
system....... I hope not for you but I know enjoyed a few of these 
when I was starting out! Again data partition is unaffected.

A more sophisticated method is to use the data partition as your /home 
directory, but there are slightly different implications with this.

>  And can it be resized  
> later using ubuntu tools (i.e. without having to buy partition magic  
> later).

There are tools which can be used. My favourite is Gparted live CD, I 
am told it is a lookalike to Parti. Mgr. It is very easy to use.

Changing partition sizes, adding them  etc etc can produce complex 
consequences, so take your time.

hth
-- 
ac
Kubuntu user#10391