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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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is there any drawback to having too many partitions? (linux.community)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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experimenting with my 2014 macbook pro and several linux distros (xubuntu, mint, fedora)

So far I have 8 partitions:

1 EFI for grub,
1 hfs+ (Linux HFS+ ESP) for OCLP, I think,
1 apfs for the macOS 14 I cannot boot,
2 ext4 for xubuntu and mint
1 brfs for fedora (so it cannot be ext4?)
2 unallocated ones, because I deleted systems I don't want.

I use gparted: the 2 unallocated sections are separated. Is this a problem?

How many partitions are too many for this machine? 247 GiB storage and 7.66 GiB memory.

After I'm done experimenting and keep the 2 to 3 operative systems I like, should I wipe the notebook, create the 2 to 3 partitions I'm going to need and reinstall? Or would it be better to simply delete the partitions I don't want?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Don't get me wrong, but please start using LVM volumes, ZFS volumes or BTRFS subvolumes instead of partitions. We're not in 1995 anymore.

I know a lot of you come from a Windows background so you're used to juggling partitions with all the hassle that entails, but if you put a bit of time towards learning LVM you'll find that you can stretch and shrink volumes to your heart's content.

You can do neat tricks with mirroring, stripping and other RAID levels, mix and match disks and more.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Thats not really possible here. All they do is install multiple distros in parallel.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

You probably could do it like that... but I think you might run into weird issues, like Debian trying to use Ubuntu's boot volume or something.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The only 2 scenarios where I can see problems are: old distros that must have a boot partition or outdated installers that will not recognize LVM volumes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Yes it probably works, but when installing Distros I would always recommend using their standard partition layout