[Leaplist] Distro and LAN choices, this works for me!

[Robin (Bartow FL)]

> OK.  What I do is partition for the swap file partition as the very
> first partition.
> 
> Then, I simply partition the rest of the drive as one big partition.

http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/hard_disk_sector_structures.htm
Study the graphic in figure 1, and data in figure 2 and 3.

My understanding is that hard drive disk IO is usually the slowest part of your computer. It is a bottle neck. In a hard drive, the data is stored in reverse to what floppy disk storage is. Data is writen from the outside in as opposed to the inside out. When monitoring linux swap usage I have found that in my case very little is used. Previous Debian installs (by default) put swap space last and close to center of platen where data transfer to on disk cache (buffers) would be slower. Putting swap first seems counter productive to data IO efficiency. Head travel distance and seek time are both shorter on the outside of the platen. Data tranfers time is shorter.

Windoze and applications written for same are very particular. So I concede the first partition there to avoid much aggravation. The second fastest partition for disk IO is my preffered distro. And the third fastest partition is my R&D area.

Just as the most frequently used tools in my garage are more readly available, so is my disk IO.

> The files that I hope to archive are burned off to CDrom or DVDrom,
> plus, my bookmarks are exported to my mail address storage addresses at
> Google, Hotmail. and Yahoo as attachments in messages to me.
...
> Anything I might want to have is online ready for instant access, from
> almost anywhere, on any computer.

Have you considered a flash drive? (thumb drive, pen drive)
If you have a lot of URLs, you can search by a text string for pertinent links. Copy, share, transfer URLs quite easily, even without an Internet connection.

> I heartily recommend they get a second system, as they are free on the
> street, or, $59.00 up to $219.00, for a Dell with full warranty, from
> http://cheaptronicsdepot.com depending upon memory, speed, etc.
> including monitor, keybd. mouse, and etc.  Then, install Linux on the
> slower system, of the ones now they have.

The best solution, but not the easiest one to sell.

> I see that Mepis has a click through EULA as does Red Hat, Mandriva, and
> others.  Is that to combat Microsoft's theft of the product?

The purpose of copyright is to protect ones investment.
If your purpose for computer use does not conflict with any EULA, be happy.
If it does, be wary.

/robin