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[Tom <question79072@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Question #79072 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/79072

Tom proposed the following answer:
HI :)

Having the OS & programs all on one partition & then another partition
for the linux-swap partition on one SSD-drive with all the data &
settings on one partition on another drive is probably going to make
your system hugely fast and very robust.

Of course 1 thing we really don't have to worry about in linux is
viruses because great care is taken to build security into every level
of linux, even into the ethos of it.  No-one profits from viruses in
linux, they would just slow development down and distract focus from
much more intriguing, interesting and exciting work.  Also the kudos or
infamy and satisfaction that virus writers can only get in the Windows
world from writing viruses is much more likely to be gained in linux by
writing proper applications.  Elegant code written in linux can easily
be admired by a great many people but in Windows it would all get hidden
away and code-writers tend to be treated with suspicion being barred
from seeing too much of the bigger picture.

The Ubuntu OS & programs are best not split up into separate partitions
and drives although if you really must then i'm sure it's possible.
Mostly people just install their /home folder (that contains all the
data and settings) onto a separate partition, better still if that's on
a separate drive.

The big question then is where to put the swap?  Since the ram & swap
work very tightly together at the same time as constant read/writes are
needed to the OS&progs it would normally make sense to have swap on a
separate drive so that the read/write head wouldn't be forced to
constantly bounce around between swap and OS&progs.  Also the speed of
read/writes to both swap and OS&progs is a key factor in how faster your
OS runs.  However SSD's work very differently and are very much faster
so it seems perfect for putting both the swap and the OS&progs on the
one SSD drive.

It's better to have the swap on a separate drive from the data because
the data gets copied into swap caches so that it's queued up ready in
advance of being called by the cpu into ram.  It helps a lot if the
read/write head that's dealing with data doesn't have to bounce
backwards and forwards across the drive.

All this assumes you have low ram or high demands of course.  If you
have a lot of ram and just do text-editing then your swap space will
probably never get used at all because ram will be able to cache all
read/writes without getting close to being full.

Ubuntu OS&progs only needs about 5Gb, even that is very generous.  The swap only needs to be about twice the size of your ram although it could happily be as small as ram.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq
Which leaves you with a huge amount of empty space on your SSD-drive - perhaps for other OS's, other versions of linux or even other *nixs and possibly even Windows too?

Anway, i hope some of these random thoughts help - if they just make any sense that would be great!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

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