How many GBs for Ubuntu + Arch?

[luciusad2004]

Hey guys. I've been meaning to install Arch Linux but have yet to get to it. I went so far as to format my Ubuntu install a month or so back but never went any further. Anyway, lately i have been feeling the penguins siren call tugging at my spirit, and have been eying up hardy heron.

So this leads me to The Question:
How large of a HDD do you guys figure i would need to install the latest offerings from the ubuntu team and then later follow it up w/ a minimalistic Arch Install? For the ubuntu install i'm gonna go w/ Gnome, the Arch install as i said will probably start off pretty minimalist, and will pretty much be a toy for me. I might use XFCE w/ arch.

My spare HDD is 20-30ish GBs I think. I know i can def fit one or the other, but wasn't sure if i could fit both.

I'm just gonna be doing internet stuff w/ it and probably screwing around w/ my themes. Nothing that would require huge amounts of space.

I could possible share some partitions between the two? I know i can set it up to share the swap partition and possibly my home directory.

Thanks for any advice.

[.Maleficus.]

Hehe, looks like you've pretty much already got an answer :D. Install Arch first though, because the Ubuntu installer will 1) be much easier to fix than Arch's and 2) will detect another Linux install and ask you to share the home directory.

[luciusad2004]

You know what i just realized. I only have one DVD left and wont get any more for at least another 2 weeks. I know that DVD is going to Ubuntu. So maybe i can't do this yet. : (

Thanks for the answer though. I might look around and see if i can install arch via flashdrive. If the image is small enough i could give that a shot.

[Mitternacht]

Daemon Virtual Drive, you can install Ubuntu thru Windows and use DAEMON to virtually mount the CD image.

[luciusad2004]

Just installed the latest ubuntu and OMG do i love it. It was so easy, my beater of a rig installed in probably under a half hour. I was thoroughly pleased. Then it booted for the first time, got all of the auto updates and installed my nvidia drivers. It was literally one click. The drivers were easier than windows. Even on my crappy rig it looks gorgeous and runs smoothly. I must say, i am highly pleased. I just wanted to send a big "thanx" to Mal. I wouldn't have bothered if i didn't read through your review.

[.Maleficus.]

Hehe, glad it helped :). I was really impressed too by the ease of the install.

[luciusad2004]

Reviving and old thread here. Sorry, but I had a question. Ubuntu is running mostly fine and I've been using it a lot lately since for my current programming class i can either a) SSH in to the school servers to do all of my assignments or b) run Linux and work on my own machine. In my opinion the answer to that choice is obvious. So on to my question.

Everything runs fine except for one little, very pesky problem. Once in a while everything locks up. This usually occurs after a program crashes. When these crashes occur it a program (or two, or more) stops responding and i have to force quit. After I fore quit the offending app I can't access any of the menu's or the button to log off. All of my Open applications keep running and i can use them but i can't really do anything w/ the OS itself. It's really hard to explain actually. Sometimes its Firefox that will crash, other times it's Rythmbox. It's just sort of frustrating because it always forces me to manually power off my computer and reboot. I have no Idea whats going on. Any body have any ideas how i could go about figuring out what is going on next time this happens.

Thanks