Best Filesystem for Ubuntu?

Question

What is the best filesystem for Ubuntu & why??

Answer 1

I have used ext3 from when I started working with Linux.



On my Linux Mint 6 installation I still run ext3 and on my Linux Mint 7 installation I have converted to ext4 and there is a noticeable improvement in performance



Convert Your ext3 File System to ext4 (in Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04)

http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009/04/convert-your-ext3-file-system-to-ext4.html



To increase performance even further upgrade to GRUB 2



How To Install GRUB 2 On Ubuntu 9.04

http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-install-grub-2-on-ubuntu-9.04



On the forthcoming Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) both ext4 and GRUB 2 will come as default





LUg.

Answer 2

That is a little like asking which is the best car. Depends on how you'll use it. Wander through the Ubuntu help pages if you really need a good perspective.



Personally, I chose ext3 because it is common, and based on the even more common ext2, and adds journaling for safety. I put a lot of value in the stability of a well used file system. Let others discover the bugs and tweaks of some of the newer filesystems. There are some speed tradeoffs that I consider minor. If you are slightly less of a ludite, you might prefer xfs, or...?

Answer 3

Probably ext3...

It doesn't have the best performance, but is very well-tested and has been proven to be a good stable filesystem.

Answer 4

ext4 but only use it if you are not expecting to access the data with a live OS that doesn't support ext4 yet.

I tried to alter a file from a live CD and couldn't read or write to ext4. Having said that I can still access windows from ext4 and unlike Fedora I can boot from ext4 with Ubuntu so all but the swap partition can be ext4 (ie / /boot and /home - the first, single, slash represents 'root')



It is faster and has other benefits which don't concern me.