Noob question but some confusion over directories vs partitions in a Ubuntu install.

I have a standard 4 partition setup , efi boot, root, home and swap.

But Ubuntu by default creates /home and also /root directories.


What is the difference between Ubuntu's default /home and the home partition I manually create?
What if I was also to create a 'opt' partition?
Would applications that normally install in the Ubuntu default /opt directory install instead in my opt partition?
Sorry for the confusion and thanks in advance for your feedback

Short version: One is manual and not "default"
and one is "standard" and also has a "default".
I suggest reading over https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PartitioningSchemes

If you let it do it auto, you get LVM I believe.
And I have to learn that also in 2017.

Have fun in the New Year!

Hey eco_bach ... The short answer is: partitions are lower-level sections of your hard disk, whereas the /home and /root created when you installed Ubuntu are directories on one or several of the partitions. Practically, it is easier to have certain things installed on separate partitions (especially different operating systems), whereas things like the /home directory can just as easily be installed on the same partition as your Ubuntu system (BTW, the /opt directory is not something a user should create, modify or delete).

There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach - I encourage you to read up on it for details. Swapping can be done via a fixed, separate swap partition or a swap file on your main system partition ... Same caveat as above.

Hope this helps, but feel free to reply if not.

Cheers !