[NTLUG:Discuss] SSD on Linux Desktop

[Mike Hart]

SSD on linux is a non-issue.  SSD's act like mechanical drives, only faster.  I wouldn't recommend one for a live server with lots of read/write activity, but for a normal use desktop, other things like RAM and CPU will need replacing before the drive.  That is, each byte is designed for ~10,000 writes, but is likely to work for about 50,000 - 100,000 or more writes before it gets stiff enough to fail.  Like magnetic drives (and unlike DRAM), there is a bad block list, so even when you approach end of life, the drive continues to function, but with less and less space, and more and more read failures. 


I wouldn't recommend a journaled filesystem on one, but regular linux ext2 fs (type 0083?) and let the drive do it's own smart management. It will do so anyway, so you're just being redundant with a journaled filesystem anyway, and losing cpu in the process.