Hi, how is everybody doing?

I'm about to install the new mandrake 10 beta, and I would like some help to decide about partitions on my system.

Of course I know partitions depend on many things, so I'll try to give as much details as I can.

First of all, It's a dual boot system. Windows still rules on my HD -- but I'm sure this is going to change as soon as I get better at using Linux, for now I'm a newbye

So now I have 8 GB of my HD for Linux. Most of my files (such as MP3s, docs, movies, etc...) are stored on a Windows partition, since I can access this partition from Linux, but can't access Linux partitions from Windows. So, I guess my home partition doesn't have to be so big.

I'm experimenting with databases, mysql and apache. I heard these need a var partition, right? Or wrong? But it's not that I'll really run a website from my PC... I'll have a modest use for databases and servers.

What else... I'll install lots of programs, for sure. I guess that's pretty much it. Any suggestions? I would greatly apprecciate any help.

Thanks.

it's probably better to have a /var partition if you're going to do stuff with mysql and apache. if it's only for experimenting, though, it's probably not a huge deal. i would just make a partition however big i needed for /home, and then make the rest / (edit: plus swap space, of course ). that would be easiest, b/c then you won't have to worry about having made more than you need for /var and running out of space on / for programs, etc. if you were going to do more serious (large scale, commercial, etc.) or permanent apache/database stuff, a separate /var partition would definitely be a good idea.

Thanks for your opinion. But I heard it's a good idea to have a separate /usr partition, so that if you install another Linux, or anything of this kind, You won't lose your installed programs. I also heard about having a specific /usr/local partition.

So, should I have a separate /usr partition? There is a good chance that I'll try other distros, and stuff... and this usr/local thing, is that a good idea?

Some questions about partitioning:

1- I heard that I could partition my sisttem like this: /, /usr, /home, /var, /temp, /swap, /boot. Should I really do it?

2- Is it true that the /boot and the / partitions, under the partitioning mentioned above, only need 100MB?

3- What about the file systems? Should any partition have a different file system? Why? I use the default (I thinks it's journ.) for all of them.

Thanks...