If you tried to use Linux a few years ago, and found you were left with a bad taste in your mouth, you may be one of many. Since then, Linux has made leaps and bounds in it's growth as a desktop user OS. Where Linux used to be known as a very user UNfriendly operating system, things have changed. If you decide to pick up the newest flavor of a distribution, say RedHat Linux 8.0, you may be surprised. The Inquirer has posted the newest article in their "Installing Linux is Easy" series. This article deals with Partitions, Filesystems, and how they work. If you've missed out on the previous posts, that's OK. We'll list them for you:

Part One: Making Linux work on your PC

 

Part Two: Getting and preparing for Linux
Part Three: Details and precautions
Part Four: Partitioning considerations

 

Really. It is dead easy. Just place the coaster (Linux distro CD1) in the cup-holder (CDROM tray), and away you go. For many people this is literally about all they need to do... well, that and answer a few easy questions, get coffee, eject the CD.

 

But okay, it can be a little more complicated than that, I admit. What if you don't have your PC set up to boot from your CDROM drive? Do you not have a CDROM drive? That is alright: other ways work well, too.

 

The major Linux distros provide installers that are capable of selecting a default partitioning layout with minimal user input. However, as with many default situations, you can often do somewhat better by taking time to understand what's involved and building your own Linux partitions. To do this, you need to understand a little about disk partitions, Linux filesystems, and the Linux file hierarchy.