Well, lets consider different setups,
For Desktop / Workstation:-
For a 38162mb hdd, (conventional 40 GB's)
=> 100 Mb ext2 /boot (What if say, we boot several kernels aftr a new compilation??)
=> 1024 Mb <SWAP> (Just a general allocation taking 512Mb as RAM)
=> 10240 Mb ReiserFS / ( /home for user files, music and others)
[Extended partition]
=> 20480Mb Ext3 FS /usr ( For several Packages)
=> 6318Mb Ext2 FS /tmp (For Cd/DVD burning and iso Images as well as Downloaded internet files)
(Fedora and debian users should consider allocating a /var seperately or in-place of /tmp cause yum and apt store their stuff in /var)
+ves :-
+ ReiserFS System is capable of handling small files such as user files very fast.
+ using a /boot ext2 partition before a reiserfs or ext3 partition is said to enhance performance. Also the journal of ext3 as well as ReiserFs takes much of diskspace that's why you should never use journalised filesystems for small partitions.
+ Allocating 20GB to /usr is certainly a good idea considering that a GNU\Linux user
may need a lot of software requirements. (arbitrary..!
)
A few may also allocate a /usr/local seperately!
+ I prefer having a seperate download location for packages and to unpack their sources. Also /tmp is also used for creating cd or dvd images. So consider having it big.
-ves :-
- Of-Course your stuff is set-up without the flexibility of a single / .
- I'am not sure whether un-mounting and resizing partitions with parted or fips would cause a kernel-panic.. Use it at your own risk.
Servers always have a lot of /var.