How big a hard drive for installation?

[nutznboltz2003]

I've read a lot on google, and searched the forums here, but one thing I have yet to find is how big should the drive/partition really be? I've read a lot of "start with 10 gig or so, and if you enjoy linux, then partition more space and re-install".

I plan to move away from XP as much as possible (some testing will require it), but would like to live on Linux if at all possible.

I have two hard drives in the system. one 40 GB sata and one 80GB sata.

If I plan to make this my everyday machine, is the 40GNB enough, or should I run it on the 80 GB drive?

I plan to run SUSE, and would like to try both KDE as well as GNOME to see which one I like better.

Aside from that, I will be web browsing, e-mail, and I would like to experiment with some multimedia. I would like to do some gaming as well, but that is not a priority.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance
--adam

[beachboy]

I plan to move away from XP as much as possible (some testing will require it), but would like to live on Linux if at all possible.

I have two hard drives in the system. one 40 GB sata and one 80GB sata.

If I plan to make this my everyday machine, is the 40GNB enough, or should I run it on the 80 GB drive?

I plan to run SUSE, and would like to try both KDE as well as GNOME to see which one I like better.

If it was me and I planed on useing linux the most then I would use the 80gb drive.

I like kde better than Gnome but they are both really good to use.

I still have a copy of xp on here someplace, I use Suse 99.9% of the time along with gentoo and knoppix from time to time.

[twoHats]

The good news is you don't have to make those kind of choices. You can always add mounted partitions later.

So... set aside say 10G for windoze, 10G for Linux.

Lets say you did that on the 40G drive - then you could use the 80 (or some part of it) as a fat32 partitioned drive to access from both windoze and Linux! ie, this is where you keep all the data like images and videos etc.

Later if you upgrade Linux - your data stays intact.

Have fun

ps - there are an infinite (or nearly so) set of combinations of partitions you could do with those drives - i used to have exactly the same setup ...

[drakebasher]

If you have 10Gb, that's plenty for most setups. If you have lots of music or pictures or you want all kinds of extra software, it may not be enough. I've had 4 distros on one 40Gb drive. I've had 3 on one 12Gb drive. I have Debian Sarge with plenty of good stuff on a 4Gb partition with room to spare.

[nutznboltz2003]

That's good news to hear! In that case, I'll problaby go 20/20 on the 40 GB drive, and use the 80 GB drive for mutual storage between the two systems.

Now, is there any problem with having both GNOME and KDE installed on the same box?

--adam

[Cabhan]

There is not. I have installed simultaneously Fluxbox, KDE, Gnome, Enlightenment 17, and XFCE, and had no problems.

[nutznboltz2003]

There is not. I have installed simultaneously Fluxbox, KDE, Gnome, Enlightenment 17, and XFCE, and had no problems.

Fluxbox, Enlightenment 17, XFCE??? I have never heard of such things. I take it these are other potential Desktop Environments that I can work with?

Looks like I have much more reading to do!

--adam

[Dachnaz]

Yes, those are all Desktop Environments. All of them are very, VERY good. The newest version of KDE (3.5) is much more streamlined and less buggy than the older versions. Gnome uses the GTK libraries, which IIRC are updated less and don't get improved as much as QT (which KDE uses). Fluxbox is minimalistic with almost no configuration tools, and it's great for low-end systems or if you need every bit of processing power for other applications. Xfce is my personal favorite, it's alot like Flux but with more config tools and a nicer look. It's still not as bogged down with useless rubbish like IMO Gnome and KDE are. Enlightenment I have never experimented with extensively, but it's pretty and does a lot of nice things for you, I hear. There are a few others out there too. You have plenty of options in terms of Desktop Environments!

[nutznboltz2003]

Well, looks like I will be spending my evening doing google searches for Linux Desktop Environments!

Is there a limit on how many I can have installed?

--adam

[Dachnaz]

You're only limited by your disk space. KDE and Gnome are the fattest DEs, and each takes up around 300mb with all the dependencies. Flux takes up almost nothing, Xfce around 50mb. Those are just some examples and it varies depending on how you install each. For instance, a binary install of something as extensive as KDE would be far larger than compiling its source.