1.) Why use ext3? Perhaps you should show the advatanges of reiser and xfs
because it is the standard choice of ubuntu when not chosen anything else. this is for the linux noob.
--------> Ah okay, even a mention is worth while, the speed differences and capabilities are worth it
2.) 'Twice your ram' as a rule for swap doesn't really exist anymore, desktops n
ow have up to 4G of ram (mine has 2), the most you really need on any desktop li
nux system with over 512mb ram is 512mb.
I recommend "twice the ram but not more than 1-1.3 gb" is that good?
-----------> The main thing to remember is that swap is on the harddrive, which is already pretty slow, so what you want is to a.) have the swap block at the start of the disk ,and b.) (though this is considered myth) to have a small size partition. Both these factors are considered to speed up the swap process. That's a bit off topic, what I wanted to say is that any system with 512mb ram probably will never use 512mb swap in desktop operations, with servers it's different.
3.) Give links to the linux ntfs driver site (http://www.linux-ntfs.org/), not the other you list it has howto's and docos for read/write saftely on ntfs. Fat32 has serious limitations.
Fat32 is not linked to. The other link is to a NTFS driver that uses your existing windows-drivers. I will put the new link there as well, but why should I remove the captive-link?
-------------> There are known faults with the windows driver wrapped for linux use, like the ndiswrapper mess for wireless. Yes it works to some degree, but it may eat your cat :)
4.) explain vmware is now free
Did I forget? Damn - thanks!
5.) have a contents listing at the top of the page (perhaps)
Maybe maybe - Why not? Good idea.
6.) link hacks.oreilly.com backups scripts and other nice scripts
That is rather really for a bit more advanced users. I think I'll let them find the ubuntuguide.org but have orelliy page be found by themselvees later.
-----------> Okay sure, there's a heap of backup front-ends out there, perhaps list a couple good ones they can 'apt-get' in linux
7.) you have a very simple partition layout stated. Perhaps offer a /uar, /tmp,
/var, /boot, /, swap, /home as well.
It is important to keep it as simple as possible but yet as durational as possible as well. What are the benefits to mount /var, /uar and /tmp on their own partitions for the beginner? Is it simple enough? I already have /, swap, /home and /boot in the layout.
-----------> An example is /tmp, because /tmp has files continually deleted, replaced, appended, moved and generally arsed around with, if any filesystem is going to become corrupt, it's going to be /tmp. If /tmp resides on your / partition, than your / will be lost, which... in your partition layout contains /usr, so there goes the OS :) If you want to keep it simple, just add /tmp as well, forget the others i listed
8.) List something about the ubuntu live cd
Will do!
Thanks ferro!