Mint 7 - do I stick with ext3 or try ext4?

[ginjabunny]

Are you pondering what I'm pondering?

I presume that ext4 in Mint 7 will be exactly the same as Ubuntu 9.04, if so I have been wondering whether to install with a slightly buggy ext4 or hold off and stick with ext3, I have had a couple of PCs running Ubuntu 9.04 with ext4 for a while and both have experienced quite a few lockups, so what to do?

Let me know your views or experiences and I'll report back with mine at some point

[subslug]

Whatever you do just realize that putting any critical data on experimental or testing types of partitions can lead to heartache.

If you run into a problem there might not be any way to recover.

Having said that though, I've never tried ext4 so it maybe the best thing since the last best thing.

[exploder]

I would wait for the next release for ext4, that will give the Developer's time to work out the bugs. Of course, this is just my opinion.

[FedoraRefugee]

I have been running ext4 for the last two weeks for the first time in my Mint 7 RC install and so far so good. Feels like ext3 to me, nothing different no bugs yet. Good advice above though, I dont think I would put anything mission critical on it just yet.

[dzello]

Using it for a month without any trouble. Backup often, no matter which fs you're using!

[Fred]

I wouldn't hesitate to use the ext4 fs on a notebook or other system where a power failure would be highly unlikely. On a desktop or server without UPS? No, not until the 2.6.30 kernel is available and proven.

Fred

[exploder]

I will wait on ext4 until it is used as the default file system. I don't mind waiting a little longer though.

[ShyGuy]

I'm using ext4 for a couple weeks now and it seems stable for me. Of course I did a backup with mintbackup and copied it to another drive just to be safe.

[ginjabunny]

I installed Mint 7 with ext4 on Monday morning, I had 2 lock-ups that day, Tuesday morning I reinstalled using ext3 and it has been fine since.
Obviously most distros don't trust it yet as it is still buggy, I think I'll wait a bit longer before the move to ext4.

[Lantesh]

I think what you have to ask yourself is do the benefits outweigh the potential problems. Personally I don't see how using what is more or less still a Beta product that might possibly cause data loss to have any advantage, even if it does offer better performance. There is something to be said for stability. Would you buy a car that handles better and drives faster if there was a risk of the steering going out? Of course not. Especially not if your current car already handled pretty great and was fairly fast.

[emorrp1]

Would you buy a car that handles better and drives faster if there was a risk of the steering going out? Of course not. Especially not if your current car already handled pretty great and was fairly fast.

Maybe not, but replacing a crashed car is time-consuming and costly. With a decent partitioning scheme and post-installation config scripts, you can fresh install mint in under 30 mins, for free, with no data loss. I'd say If you're hesitant about it, don't worry about it, wait until mint 8 (helena?) when it'll be default, once it's stable.

Also I'd perhaps alter the analogy. You have a car, and its breaks are running fine, but you might want to try out new breaks which are better, but less stable. You'd be crazy to go for the change unless you're a mechanic. However you hear there's the latest in comfort available for the seats and air-con, again slightly less stable, but better. My point is it's great to go for new versions of the software at the top of the app stack e.g. If a new version of mintUpload comes out, and goes wrong, it's unlikely to take the whole system down with it, so you may as well try it out. But if there's a new kernel version, it *could* mess up your system totally (this is one of the principles behind the update levels)