I'm doing a Linux install and I want to control the partition config.

1. I want to use the following partitions, but I don't know how big to make
each one (assuming that I'm using 15 - 20 GB total) :

/, swap, /usr, /home, /opt

2. What should I use as for my file system for sharing with Win? FAT32?

I'd appreciate info/opinions on either point.
Thanks, Dave H.

what distro and programs are you planning to install? knowing that helps to estimate how much space might be needed.

1. a much easier way to partition would be to make something like a 5-10GB partition (depending on distro and what you plan to install) for /, a swap partition approximately twice the amount of memory, and either use the rest for /home, or fix a size for /home and leave the rest as free space to use later. that's a very general scheme, so you'd have to tailor to your individual needs, but imho it makes it easy to manage your system without having to worry so much about running out of space later on /usr, /var, etc.

2. what file systems should you make your linux partitions for sharing your linux files with windows? or what file system should you make your windows partitions for sharing your windows files with linux?

>edit: and are you talking about on the same physical disk or over a network? if the same disk, FAT32 would be the best choice, b/c linux can't yet write reliably to NTFS. windows can't "see" the files on a linux partition, so from that perspective it doesn't matter what you make them (reiserfs and ext3 are good choices).

The distro is Mandrake 9.1. I'm not really sure what programs I'll install in the future, as I'm new to Linux. However, during installation, I chose everything that was not specifically for servers. And I'm talking about one physical disk. I have Windows installed on a small 3 GB partition at the beginning of the drive right now. It's a 80 GB disk and I was planning on giving 20 GB total to Linux, plus adding a small (5GB ?) partition for sharing files between Windows and Linux (FAT32).

that would work. i'd give 10GB to / and 10 to /home.

well...what I do if I have a _single user_ system:
swap partition-> double of RAM
root partition -> 6gig (assuming I wanna install LOTS of stuff ^^)
rest as /home ^^