Suggestions for Dual - Boot Hard Drive Partitioning

[GreyGeek]

The big difference between OpenSUSE and Kubuntu is that SUSE is based on the RPM package manager, rpm for short, and Kubuntu built on top of Ubuntu, which is based on the Debian package manager, deb for short. For a while there was, IMO, a significant difference between the reliability of rpm and that of deb, but in the last 5-10 yrs rpm has become as stable as deb.

Ubuntu, hence Kubuntu (and Neon), has a bigger footprint than OpenSUSE so if you need a package that isn't in the 88,000+ package repository for Kubuntu (Ubuntu) the odds are that the source for that app will include a deb package. When I ran SuSE, from 5.3 to 6.4 (a period of five years and 20 releases, one per quarter) it used about 20 python scripts to manage the various aspects of SuSE's system, with Yast and later Yast2 controlling the 20 scripts. IF you tell YasT2 that you are going to take responsibility for managing your system it will stop working. I don't know if that is the way it is now.

As I said, the KDE Plasma 5.12.x desktop on both are essentially the same, but Kubuntu depends more on KDE config and management tools whereas OpenSUSE has its own set of config amd management tools. Both use systemd as process 1, and eventually systemd will control management of all aspects of both distros. Btrfs is a fabulous filesystem, worth its digital weight on Gold! Personally, I will never use a distro that doesn't allow me to set up Btrfs as the root file system.

I run KDE Neon User Edition because I want to be on the leading edge of the KDE desktop. IF I wanted to be on the bleeding edge I'd run KDE Neon Dev or Unstable. OpenSUSE Leap 15 is closer to Kubuntu and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is more like Neon User Edition.


But, either way, you can't go wrong.

[jlapinsk4]

Thank you so much for the detailed instructions! Since you have a lot of experience with SUSE, in your opinion are there really any functional differences between the two OSs? I am still relatively new to Linux (I've dabbled since 2012, but I've been using it full time for about a year now), I prefer the KDE desktop and have been looking to branch out beyond Ubuntu based systems (although I am not sure if I really need to).

[GreyGeek]

Personally, I would create two partitions and give each 60Gb. Or, give each 30GB and let 60GB be an archival drive.
Let them be /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3, for example.

Leap 15 defaults to a Btrfs root file system and creates several btrfs subvolumes (/home, /boot, /root, /usr etc... I don't remember exactly which directories are subvolumes, I stopped using SuSE when Novell took them over).
With Kubuntu Bionic you have to select Btrfs specifically, because it defaults to EXT4.

With Btrfs installed on both systems as the root file system you can use Btrfs's wonderful snapshot ability to make "backups" and their send&receive facility to archive and/or restore from a previous snapshot. IF you decide you want to stick with one installation and remove the other you can use Partitionmanager to delete the unwanted partition and make it raw. Then use the btrfs resize command to grow the existing installation to take up the space formerly used by the deleted installation.

Leap uses snapper to make and restore snapshots. Snapper is in Kubuntu's repository as well. With your limited disk space I would edit its config file to limit the number and frequency of snapshots that snapper makes to around 5. While snapshots are a good way to freeze an installation at a particular time and restore to that point at some later date, snapshots are not real backups because they reside on the same HD that the filesystem resides on. Backups are snapshots stored on external HDs (local or remote) which is what send & receive do.

I used SuSE from Sept of 1998 till Nov of 2002 (or 3?), It was, and is an excellent distro. You can't go wrong with it. Kubuntu 18.04 is also excellent. And, since both use the latest KDE Plasma 5.12.5 (IIRC) your desktop experience will be the same on both, depending on which additional apps you install and how you configure the desktops.

Both use systemd. Post installation Leap 15 uses Yast2, their graphical configuration engine. Kubuntu sticks with KDE System Settings.

[jlapinsk4]

Good afternoon,

I am looking for advice on a partitioning set up on a 120 Gb SSD in order to dual boot Kubuntu 18.04 and Opensuse Leap 15. This is the current partitioning set up running Kubuntu 18.04

[IMG]file:///home/jlapinski/Pictures/Screenshot_20180602_114341.png[/IMG]

Any suggestions are appreciated!