How often are writes to the "OS" portion of an installed Linux Distro really needed?

[Billy Crook]

On Sun, Feb 1, 2009 at 13:07, David Nicol <davidnicol at gmail.com> wrote:
> it seems to me that the same optimizations made for live CD running
> from the CD would apply.  Writes to the OS portion are /never/ needed.
>  Mounting with the -noatime switch should remove vestigal writes.

That depends, entirely, on what the "OS partition" is.  If it includes
the /var and /tmp hierarchies, you will be in pain not being able to
write.  Not to mention updates to software.

Keeping a separate filesystem for user data is neither a net win or
loss.  If you're going to do it, DO NOT do it because you think it
makes you safer somehow.  It doesn't.

I use noatime on some systems, but only to reduce disk i/o and thus
power usage.  If you're not already encrypting your filesystems,
noatime can slightly protect you from someone being able to later
determine how you were using your computer.