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[Tom <question76135@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Question #76135 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/76135

Tom posted a new comment:
Please, mostly it's only worth skim reading what i say, perhaps not even
that much this time.  Thanks tho :)  & you're welcome, it's good to see
someone that's able to set things up 'right' from the start.

Most other distros add too much confusion for most linux-noobs.  Ubuntu
and Wolvix minimise it.  Setting the "Mount Points" tells the installer
what to do with each partition.  Mostly distros avoid formatting the
/home partition although in this case you will need to do that anyway.
Yes, defining a mount point as / tells the installer to 'drop the OS
into it' by starting the directory structure from there and to build up
system folders and files from that.  I have just installed Ubuntu on a
new drive using almost exactly this setup and the / partition has only
got about 4Gb used - but in the future i might want to try something
else so the empty 11Gb(ish) just feels like insurance against that day.

Windows programs are huge.  Each time they want a particular library or function that's already contained in another program they re-write a new one (or copy&paste the chunk of code in).  This style of programming is very cumbersome but does have one single advantage in that each program is self-contained and works in isolation.  The single advantage is over-hyped while ignoring all the drawbacks.  In linux, programs are written to share common libraries and use other programs, where possible, to get functionality that has already been coded.  This means programs are smaller and lighter, also updating a single library/program effectively updates all the programs that depend on it (which is why such care is taken to avoid regressions).  A problem that one person finds in one program and files a bug-report about may help countless other people using different programs and hadn't yet encountered the problem, which is partly why filing bug-reports is seen as a good thing rather than seen as whining.  Also a library only needs to be opened once, once it's sitting in ram/swap-space it's then available for any other program that might need it simultaneously - hence huge performance increase over Windows in terms of speed and minimal ram usage.  Windows programs can often be installed by using Wine (="Wine Is Not an Emulator", it's much more sophisticated but sometimes a little tricky to use) but these programs are installed to your /home folder.  
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Linux_software_equivalent_to_Windows_software
http://appdb.winehq.org/

To summarise i would recommend giving any increased space to /home
rather than to / - also given that you have such a small amount of ram
it might be worth making the linux-swap partition larger, something like
2Gb or 4Gb seems about right.  then if you do get an opportunity to buy
more ram it'll be less things to remember and less of a struggle to get
a huge increase in performance ;)

Preparation is a good thing.  While you might seem to be excessive to me
it is only likely to make the task easier and less troublesome.  90%
preparation 10% perspiration :)  Something excessive i do is to boot up
a LiveCd session and then use that Partition Editor to setup the
partitions, the GPartEd tool on Ubuntu's LiveCd (or other distro) is
just so excellent that i would rather prepare my partitions using the
dedicated tool rather than something added in halfway through something
that has it's main focus elsewhere.  I still have to use "Manual
Partitioning" to set the "Mount Points" of course but somehow i feel
more comfortable doing things that way.  That's a bit excessive because
gparted and the section in the installer both use the same command-line
tool to do the work for that lol ;)  Still, it makes me more
comfortable.

When people try to clarify the differences between distros by saying they are different flavours it kinda annoys me but it is a good way of describing it.  Windows also has different versions but it doesn't keep the different versions up-to-date so where the smaller Win98 is very dated tiny linux distros will tend to have full wii-fi support and all the rest.  Also the other larger distros (more fully featured) such as Mandriva, openSUSE, Fedora, RedHat are much like Ubuntu but have different aims and objectives gearing themselves to slightly different markets.  
http://distrowatch.com

Frequent defragging of a Windows drive does make each defrag faster but
the only one that's really important is the one before doing
partitioning, which can be done far in advance of the actual install.
Some people argue that defragging too often is just extra wear-and-tear
on a drive but i've usually found it fairly vital in Windows.

As for increased security, forget it.  Even the built-in firewall in Ubuntu seems excessive.  Linux has 300 known viruses or less but they are more like an endangered species - in Windows the lowest estimates i've seen suggest they have 30,000 known.  OpenSource programs are too easy to look in and compare with original source code (bit beyond me tho lol) which means malware has no shadowy corners to hide in.  Also in the Windows world people with programming skills are often insulted, discouraged and treated with suspicion.  Large projects fear them stealing ideas (or code) so programmers are given a very restricted view of what they are working on.  Hence in Windows there's more fun & kudos in writing effective viruses but in linux there's much more satisfaction & kudos for writers of elegant code, especially for something useful and being OpenSource other people can easily admire the crafts'man'ship (or poke fun at kludges)
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Antivirus

I hope you are able to stop reading soon and just do it.  It's all so much easier to do than to explain.  Consider the first couple of attempts as 'trial-runs' although i suspect this attempt will be perfect :)
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

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