Big / vs. Small /.*s
The LOPSA tech mailing list has a good ongoing discussion on partition layouts. I’m currently in the “one big partition” camp for most servers (user desktops, front-end webservers, and other similar throwaway systems) that can be reimaged and brought back up to speed with configuration management. Have not maintained custom servers in some time—databases, mail servers, and the like—that would justify time spent doing partition layout planning, creation, and maintenance.