What Installing a New OS Taught Me About Disk Partitions

Introduction I have been using Manjaro (Arch based) for the longest time and I recently decided to switch to using Debian because of reasons listed in another article. However, before switching completely, it is a good idea to create a dual boot system, experiment with the new OS and then gradually shift your workflow. This doesn’t create unnecessary friction and results in smoother transition. Yesterday, I finally took the first step to install Debian and creating a dual boot system that makes it super easy to switch OS on demand. During this process I ended up learning quite a bit about disk partitions, filesystem layout, and how much disk space Linux actually needs. Understanding the Disk Layout The first and the most important thing for me to understand before even installing Debian was to understand the disk. Thanks to a Luke Smith video on installing Manjaro (Arch) – I use Arch by the way 😉 – I already had proper disk setup. In a typical Linux setup you will encounter partitions