Re: [tlug] Current practices for Linux partioning?

[Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com>]

On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 02:16:53PM -0700, Jonathan Byrne wrote:
> A few weeks ago, I stumbled across this article:
> 
> http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/separate-usr-is-broken
> 
> Now, that just seems wrong to me; it's not the Unix Way to be unable to 
> boot without /usr mounted.

Did I rant on this list, or was it another.  It's another thing of Mr.
Poettering, who is, no doubt, talented, but seems to me to have no
concept of what sysadmins want. 

> 
> However, looking at the list of distros that are either already using 
> systemd or have it in testing, and the fact that it has been proposed as 
> a dependency of Gnome 3.2:
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemd


> 
> makes it appear that systemd is the way of the future. Ubuntu isn't on 
> that list, but if Debian has packages for it in Testing, chances are it 
> may be coming to an Ubuntu Near You down the road a piece.

Blame Fedora.  What's worse is that all these desktop oriented
Fedora-isms make it into RH--for example, Mr. Hughes, the main
packagekit developer, made it so that anyone could install any signed
package without authentication.  When a bug was filed, he said that the
complainers had given no reason not to do this--the answer was, well,
it's up to you to justify this, as it's the way Unix has done things for
30 years.  

That made the front page of slashdot, and then it got changed--but only
to the point where now, any package could be upgraded by any user, if it
was a signed package.  OK, Fedora is a desktop distro, but then, it made
it into RH.  As I was watching for it, as well as a few other people,
when the next RH came out, we checked, and sure enough, any user could
upgrade a signed package.  Now, the funny part.  

The bug was filed--it seemed to sit there, but I mentioned it to a
friend who used to work for RH and is now at Canonical.  A former
co-worker of his at RH called him, and said, Hey, I hear Lucid (I
think--whatever the release was at the time), is garbage.  My friend
said, look at this bug on your bugzilla.  The guy answered well, that's
f***ing awesome.  The next day, it was fixed.  



> 
> As I prepare to upgrade my Envy 15 from Win 7 to Linux, what your 
> thoughts around partitioning? Should I hold my nose and make a / big 
> enough to contain /usr, or should I Do Things The Way I've Always Done 
> Them, which is this partitioning scheme.  

It is becoming more and more difficult to things one's own way on
desktop distros.  Which is avoiding the question, but on the Fedora
forums, I see we older folks gradually just giving up.   


-- 
Scott Robbins
PGP keyID EB3467D6
( 1B48 077D 66F6 9DB0 FDC2 A409 FA54 EB34 67D6 )
gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys EB3467D6