I just got a new laptop and installed Linux on it. I mainly run OpenSUSE.
Getting full encryption on both was a bit of a challenge and I had no idea what I'm doing. Will having the swap partition in the middle break things? Did I really need so many partitions (Mint and OpenSUSE don't show up in eachother's boot menu)?
I'm probably not gonna change this layout (because reinstallation seems like a pain) unless the swap partition's position is a problem. I'm just curious how many mistakes I made.
EDIT: I'm not upgrading my drive capacity. I do not need it.
I think the partitioning itself is fine, but I wouldn't have 3 operating systems on a 256 GB NVMe, because I'd be running out of space a lot.
if you won't ever use Windows, you can nuke it. Then I'd consider making one of the Linux ones a VM - if you're trying out that distro. That will cut down 12 partitions to 5.
Lastly, you can look into btrfs to make better use of space between (the current) p11 and p12: you can make them subvolumes that won't eat up each other's storage when not in use.
I'm only have about 20GB of files so I think I'll be fine on space.
I'm keeping Windows 11 around in case I need it for ... IDK taxes (though I don't have secureboot enabled because [points to image above]). A VM won't work for the Mint one, I need it separate for reasons I won't go into.
Btrfs was installed in default but I only know how to do full-disk encryption on ext4. Apparently btrfs doesn't have built-in support for it. I really liked how it was neatly organized into subvolumes but alas.
Get a bigger drive. Swapping them out on modern laptops is often quite easy. Grab a copy of the manual or search for videos if you want to know more. Replacement 1tb nvme drives can be quite cheap these days, 2tb ones aren't especially price prohibitive either.
This is the way, there were instances where M$ updates removed the Linux Boot options. So its better to keep them separated. Also a Malware on one system could infect the others.
Why would I get a larger drive when I have zero need for more space? That'd be like buying a huge American-style car because other cars make me feel insecure.
This is less like buying a bigger car and more like upgrading the stereo in the car - 256GB in 2025 is somewhat akin to having only AM radio, and I've found it gets annoying real fast when doing anything serious.
I would hesitate to put anything smaller than 1 TB in something that's supposed to be a daily driver.
The need for a larger vehicle might not arise from one week to the next, but the need for more gigabytes can. Windows 11 will happily eat up its entire partition next time it decides to update.
That said, as I type from my computer with only a 60 GB SSD, just make sure you have a plan for when that storage runs out.
Time to clone and delete the Windows partition.
Tax software is basically all in browser at this point.
I'm an accounting graduate, so yes. Most things should be in a browser really, since generally a webpage can't give you malware.