largest hard drive size
 

what is the largest hard drive size one can address these days. If I get a
250GB or so drive, will it just basically work with the usual partitioning?

My guess is that it's all dependent on your BIOS and if that one can handle such a big disk. And if you're using a really old installation/kernel (version 0.9.something) maybe.. :)
*remembers when his pc wouldn't recognise any disks over 1 gig*
If the BIOS takes it then Linux shouldn't have any problems with it. I'm guessing it's a IDE disk we're talking about here.
If i don't remember totally wrong i think that linux with kernel 2.6.0 handles disks up to 2,5 terrabytes.

The bootloader can also be told to use other drive geometry if the bios is wrong.