GNU/Linux partition types - I need advice

[Liviu Lalescu]

I have an 160 GB SATA hard drive. I will install the new openSuse 13.2 when it will be ready, in about 9 days. I have partitions: SWAP (2.5 GB), / (55 GB, ext4) and /mnt/date (~90 GB, ext4).

I want to keep the whole system (/ and /home) on the same root partition. I need advice if I should convert from ext4 to XFS (I understood that btrfs is only for testing).

Let me know more details.

[Zsolt Udvari]

Do you want ZFS, right? Not XFS
My method to convert ext* to ZFS (because of FreeBSD): backup the important data of an partition, and created zfs pool
Or if you can save everything from your HDD begin it from scratch

Why do you want this convert?

[Liviu Lalescu]

I do not know ZFS or XFS. I have ext4 and I noticed that openSuse 13.2 default will be XFS for /home and btrfs for / . So I am asking if XFS is better than ext4. I can convert easily, as I have a large external hard disk. But I can also leave the partitions as they are now.

[Zsolt Udvari]

I think in home usage isn't any significant differences between filesystems. I've used many in the last 10 years (reiserfs, xfs, jfs, ext3, ext4, zfs), but I didn't notice any difference (speed, performance, etc.).

[Liviu Lalescu]

Thanks! 

I'll also keep "/" on the same partition with "/home", but I think it does not matter.

[Zsolt Udvari]

The seperate home-partition has many advanteges:

• you want to change Suse to AnyOtherLinux, your private data will remain
• on different linux distributions will same environments
• you download many-many stuff from net, or grab DVDs, create iso-files, etc., maybe out of free space, and you can't install new packages, update, etc. (because / is full too)

[Liviu Lalescu]

Thank you, I'll think about 

These reasons do not quite apply to me. Because I keep my home directory under a certain limit, and make monthly backups with it (entirely). And when I install a new system I prefer to start with new settings (and just copy some directories with settings). This is to ensure I start with a really new system.

[Zsolt Udvari]

Yes, this is a different approach and "system"