[plug] FileSystems and mount points

[Bradley Browne]

I know that this topic pops up now and again and it starts a bit of a
flame war but I thought I would hazard it for the sake of using my disk
space more efficiently/effectively.

Is there any advantage to be gained by having more that 2 partitions in
your Linux file system ?  I have my hard drive split into / and /home at
the moment (and of course swap).

* I realize that it is best to make a separate partition for the spool
files and stuff (/var I think) so that you don't fill your root
partition.
* I realize that some people have a /boot partition but why ?
* I have a separate /home partition so that I don't have to delete all
my files every time I re-install.
* Also, if I were to be spanning the file system over two IDE drives
would there be any speed advantages to different configurations ?
* Why does the Redhat installation guide recommend /usr and /usr/local
partitions?

I am sure that I have not exhausted my line of questioning and so if you
know of any great resources that tell me *why* I should adopt a
particular strategy I would much appreciate it.

Thanks,
Brad