lotharjade wrote:From what I read, GPT is kinda where things seem to be going as it offers additional features not found in MBR, and has some added performance/stability benefits (or whatnot). ...At which point does Linux Mint (or Ubuntu) start leaning in that (GPT) direction for most installs?? After reading, I am surprised they have not shifted awhile ago. Hasn't even Micro$oft already started going to GPT with Windows 7 for new installs? I thought Linux usually lead the way with better tech adoption?
You should
not think of GPT as something that should be used by default for most installs. GPT is a useful technology
when applied appropriately, but it should
not be applied in all cases. To understand why this is so, consider Fedora, which has been pushing GPT in its last release or two. The Fedora forums are filled with posts about problems that have resulted from this overly-aggressive pushing of GPT. Some problems relate to
buggy BIOSes that flake out with GPT and others can result when a user wants to install Fedora and
then install Windows, since Windows won't install to a GPT disk except on UEFI-based computers.
Overall, something like the Ubuntu policy seems best, although I'd move the cutoff for using GPT up to 2 TiB and I'd give better control of the choice to users in the installer. Using GPT as the default on BIOS-based computers is asking for trouble.
Don't get me wrong, though; GPT is a major step forward over MBR, even on BIOS-based computers. It's just that it's not
universally appropriate. Its advantages are relatively small except on disks that are over 2 TiB in size, and although the problems are rare, they're much bigger than its advantages when the problems crop up. This makes switching to GPT desirable only when the user knows what s/he is doing, when the computer uses EFI, or when it's necessary because of disk size issues.