Some Questions About Trisquel Partitions
I am a member!
Don't get Me wrong - I love Trisquel but I have a few questions.
I normally run a 'duel boot' hard disc but initially I installed Trisquel to the total hard disc just to see what it did.
I then re-installed it as a duel boot on an ext 4 partition.
So My questions are :-
a) What is the difference between ext4 and xfs ? (in simple terms please)
b) Is it detrimental to install Tridquel to a ext 4 partition?
ext4 and xfs are different file systems for formatting a storage device. The actual differences between the two are pretty technical, and not particularly relevant for average users. If you want to know more, try reading the Wikipedia pages for ext4 and xfs.
And no, nothing bad is going to happen if you install Trisquel onto an ext4 partition.
Some argue XFS to be more robust file system than EXT4.
EXT4 can be faster when dealing with small files. XFS can be faster with big files.
You can search for XFS vs EXT4 performance benchmarks from www.phoronix.org.
In the end it doesn't matter much which you chose because both are very good file systems. I myself tend to use EXT4 for / root filesystem and XFS for /home filesystem because I have a lot of FLAC files and raw photographs.
Another difference is that ext4 filesystems can be both shrunk and extended, whereas XFS filesystems can only be extended.
I am a member!
Well, for me it's relevant that ext4 can be shrunk and xfs can't and checking ext4 file system takes longer than xfs but uses less RAM.
I use ext4 for / because I prefer full disk encryption with the netinstall and is more simple; and xfs I use inside my LUKS partitions (basically everything except / and /boot).
I haven't noticed any significant differences in performance.