_User choice_ is a huge reason to allow /usr to be on
a mountable partition.  Many of us have always
operated that way, and consider it to be the way
to go, exactly like not running SystemD.

The only place where this is an issue, is on boot.
There is a simple rule that has always worked:  If
it is required to boot, it goes in /, otherwise it goes
in /usr.  It is that simple.  Keep that rule, and every-
body will be happy.  Break it, and it starts yet an-
other religious war, for no reason, and at great
cost.

/ should be kept minimal, by the same reasoning.
I refurbish a lot of old machines, and this partition-
ing scheme is essential.  I don't  want to have to
go into / and manually try to figure out which files
can be on another partition and which can't.  Yes,
new hardware can avoid that due to scale.  But
if a user chooses to optimize speed, by making
the read-arm partions for / and /usr be at the
fastest physical location, then that is _User choice_.

SSD's may be much faster, but they don't have
the lifetime.  So, many of us consider SSD's to be
throw-away devices, that need the fewest writes,
and regular backup.

Just my opinions.


(original) Linuxfan


On 1/16/23 10:45, Steve Litt wrote:
> Antony Stone said on Mon, 16 Jan 2023 16:59:38 +0100
>
>> Without wishing to open a large can of annelids, can someone tell me
>> why anybody actually cares about this? What is the use case for
>> having /usr on a separate partition - why does anybody want it?
> A separate /usr is a 20th century thing. Back then, spinning rust
> drives were typically 20GB or less, which means they might not be able
> to contain the contents of /usr. Also back then, you could save lots of
> disk space by having one /usr, with all computers mounting it with NFS,
> thus removing the need to make space for /usr on every computer.
>
> But today the smallest practical SSD/NVMe you can buy without paying a
> premium per GB is 250GB. Your 40GB /usr (for a very well equipped
> poweruser desktop) is 1/6 of the 250GB, so if you fstrim with
> reasonable frequency, you'll get outstanding wear leveling for (I
> would guess) at least 3 years. A 1TB SSD/NVMe will cost you less than
> $105 at Newegg. 40GB is 1/24 of a 1TB.
>
> I guess one could make the point that a remote /usr would simplify
> admin, but back in the 20th Century we didn't have Salt and Ancible and
> all that stuff that makes multi-machine standardization simple.
>
> So my opinion is that in 2023 there's little reason to have a /usr
> anywhere but root ( / ).
>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt
> Autumn 2022 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/thrive.htm
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