Partition Size Ubuntu Karmic Koala

[ph4t3]

This has probably been asked before, but I don't know if anything has changed with regards to the partition sizes and file system (ext3 etc) of the latest ubuntu.

Here's the thing, I'm getting a 1TB hard drive today, so I've decided to dual boot Win7 and Ubuntu. Now, I've done this before but I partitioned off about 80GB for ubuntu, which i realised was too much.

I have a 320GB and an 80GB (with Win7 already installed) hard drives as well (both SATA). I'll be keeping the 1TB for data/media. So that leaves the 320GB for partitioning.

So basically, what I'm asking is:

> What would be the ideal partition size for ubuntu, leaving me with with adequate space for windows if need be (I don't want to use the entire disk for ubuntu)?
> How much space should I assign to the swap? Should I reference it in accordance with my physical memory (2.5 GB)?

 

[MyWorld]

Partition size depends largely on what you want to use Linux for, if you only want to play with it and do no real work, then around 25-40Gb should be more than enough. You can get away with far less, but then you will always worry if you have enough space left for this or that later.

I usually have 50Gb for / and I only have Linux on all my machines, lots of games and video editing software and whatnot installed, and this is how it looks:

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3              49G   11G   35G  24% /

As you can see I can shrink that partition to under 30Gb, but I love having ample space and never to worry about running out of space on / .

On my previous 5 year old Gentoo install / hovered around 15Gb.

For /home of course as much as you can spare.

Swap has become a bit redundant of late and the old rule of thumb was always 2x physical memory, but as of late memory has become so cheap that it almost removes the need for swap entirely.

So, unless you plan on editing 2Gb plus images in Gimp or do some 5 hour plus video editing on Linux, between 1-2Gb should be more than enough.

So, to answer you question:
Partition size:
Between 25-40Gb depending on what you are going to use Linux for

Swap:
Between 1-2Gb