Need your help, once again, @John Sutherland... I'm already using LM 18.3 and it works great, never had an issue since I've upgraded from18.2 and I won't be upgrading to LM 19 any time soon. But, I am planning to give Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon a spin on a new SSD I am about to get. So, if I understand correctly, we no longer need the /swap partition, as Ubuntu 18.4 and it's derivatives now use swap file. Therefore, my question is: with manual partitioning, do I need only /boot/efi, /root and /home partitions? Also, I remember that, way back when I was using Windows 7, I always set up the virtual memory file (if I remember correctly the term) to min.=max.=2.5 x RAM - does that apply for the swap file in Ubuntu/Linux Mint and if so, how do I set it up, so that its always of the fixed size?
Hello @TinMan - I'm in exactly the same boat you are right now, I'm still using LM18.3 and have yet to install LM19 on an actual hard drive, so I can't really speak from experience here. From what I've read and understand, Ubuntu 18.04 does use a swap file instead of a swap partition, but I'm unsure if this feature was carried over from Ubuntu 18.04 to Linux Mint 19 by Clem and the team. I guess the only way to find out is either ask around on the Linux Mint forum or go ahead with an install to find out. Using virtual memory for swap is kind of like the chicken and the egg scenario as far as I'm concerned, since you'd be using a portion of your physical memory to emulate swap, then in turn using swap to emulate physical memory. Nothing gained there. I think you're much better off with keeping it simple and creating a minimal sized swap partition of 2GB or so, and forget about using hibernation.
Define "much better". Playing games not so much. They are different in so many ways. I use them both.