I was just about there. Almost pulled the trigger. Was at the partitioning screen during install, all set to delete windows partitions and use the whole disc for openSUSE. Then I stopped. Two main questions linger in my mind.
First… Wireless support for my laptop Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG card. While using the LIVE CD version I noticed that nothing I did seemed to get the network up. Does the LIVE CD support wireless? I would hate to wipe windows only to find i have no internet access to my wireless modem.
Second… The recommended partition scheme gave 2gB to swap, 20gB to /, and the remaining space 178gB to /home. Now, I’ve read much in the past about special schemes. I think I saw /etc, /www, etc. I will be using the laptop mainly for internet browsing, working with OOo docs, and developing a personal website that I will be hosting on a windows box on my network. I expect to be adding a good amount of astronomy software which could get quite large. What is the default location in openSUSE for installing software? Is it /etc like some other distros? Would that justify a partition, for example?
All intel wireless cards have an excellent support under linux.So your card will work just fine.
Your partitioning seems to be ideal…
Taking a step further, i would recommend ext3 for / and xfs for /home.
There is really no need for other partitions
thanks for the replies… as far as partitioning, does it not matter in Linux where progs get installed? Is 20gB enough to install MANY programs. My current c:/ drive on winblows is over 80gB. The only thing there is the OS and progs. I have “My Docs” folder on D:/ partition by itself. Would I be wasting space by defining an etc/ partition of about 80-100gB?
20g should be plenty. Make no comparison of Linux with Windows - There are none.
all you need is:
/ (20g or more if you like, but probably not requ)
/home (as much as you can afford)
swap (512mb is enough, though many do assign more - but not needed)