Small hard drives and Linux
 

I recently purchased a 60GB SSD to use in my desktop, and I've only recently switched to Linux, so I'm not comfortable about making assumptions regarding my space requirements. I'm used to Windows, which tends to become incredibly bloated at an alarming rate.

The reason I got the SSD is, of course, because I can. Why waste SATA2 capabilities on a 7200rpm HDD?

I've found a couple of recommendations for handling SSDs, some of which, like tailoring the partitions to the specs of the drive and mounting /tmp in memory for high-RAM systems, seem intelligent, and others, like disabling journaling on an ext4 partition, seem a little extreme. I'm not prepared to go back to ext2's problems, at least not without getting a UPS, which I cannot currently afford.

However, one thing I haven't found is recommendations regarding size limitations. Most of the guides I see are based on buying a top-of-the-line 100+GB SSD, which is enough space for a properly maintained system (minus data, but that gets stored elsewhere), while mine is a more affordable drive that's only 60GB. My research into folder sizes in Linux suggests that /usr is consistently the largest folder in Linux, with /bin coming in second place (and disregarding /home, which I intend to mount on my terabyte HDD since most of that will be data storage), but I don't see any up to date resources on how big these folders tend to get for regular home use.

I don't do a significant amount of photo or video editing, but I do play computer games (through WINE, now that I've switched), and I know those usually chew through a fair bit of space.

Does anyone know if 60GB should be enough space for the entire OS, or should I segregate off one of the folders onto my old system HDD? If so, what would you suggest?

When I set up a Linux system I create a 20 GB partition for everything except /home and swap.

Ah, excellent. 60GB should be plenty, then. Thanks.

Hi,

I recently purchased a 40 GB SSD. No problems running a Slackware 13.1 X86_64 on a Dell 1501. Additional storage on a 500GB external hdd. Runs fine!
:hattip:

I have been running lucid since it came out and installed everything that I can think of including stuff from ubuntu-geek and omg-ubuntu. I still only used 4.5GB out of 20 in "/" and 11.9GB out of 100 for "home". The rest goes onto an external 2TB drive.
60GB for "/" and I would think you would get lost with all that room.

My main issue with 60GB is that I play computer games as well. On a Windows system, which I'm more familiar with, having more than 2 relatively modern games installed plus the bloated crap you need to have a functional Windows computer makes 60 GB a little tight. (Of course, I also have to remember that I don't have to stay below 85% full for the MFT, since ext4 is actually a decent file system.)

I always do 15G for / and the rest for /home. And that 15G is actually kinda overkill.

60 GB is plenty for linux . i have assigned 10GB to my / partition and only use 3.5 GB with all the settings and programs FTW!

60GB is also plenty for windows . and the games . i have a virtual machine with windows 7 being assigned 18GB and with the compression and all the antivirus stuff and stuff i still get like 7GB free .