Is 40GB correct for root partition for long usage?

[blumer]

I have a 120GB SSD hard drive, and I'd like to dualboot Windows and Debian. I need at least 80GB for Windows, so I have to choose between installing Debian on a 40GB partition on the SSD, or on an HDD where I could give it more space.
For a long time use, would 40GB be sufficient or would it limit the number of programs and utilities I can install?

[vbrummond]

40 is fine for software, but probably not for data.

[stevepusser]

The correct answer is that you never have enough hard disk space, as data expands to fill any empty space.

But that's enough to do most computer tasks. Not all, I just backported the Sid 5.2.6 kernel the other day, and that took about 57 GB of free space for the 64-bit build and the docs!

Just keep an eye how how much free space you have left.

[Dai_trying]

You could do what I do and have your working system on one partition and all data on another, I create symlinks for ~/bin, ~/Documents, ~/Downloads, ~/Music, ~/Pictures, ~/Videos and a few other directories I need from a separate partition which gets mounted via fstab at boot-up. I mainly do this to make sharing data to different OS's easier (I multi-boot) but the principle can work the same for simply splitting the load to different HDD's.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

40 is fine for software, but probably not for data.

+1

My old ThinkPad has 30GiB for the Debian system (with GNOME) and that's still got plenty of space left after a few years of usage.

[emariz]

My old ThinkPad has 30GiB for the Debian system (with GNOME) and that's still got plenty of space left after a few years of usage.

My new ThinkPad uses a 20 Gb partition for the system, also with Gnome, and it still has over 16 Gb free. And I do not think I have ever built a system that used over 5 Gb. Then again, it is all about your personal needs. Just note that Debian (and Gnu/ Linux in general) will always use way less space (and resources) than your typical Windows installation.