ALL storage has a limited life… as long as you understand the limits…
Flash memory has a limited number of write cycles. There are two types of flash chips used - NOR and NAND. Flash cards using NOR chips typically have a life span of approximately 300,000 write cycles while the ones utilizing NAND chips typically stand up about 1,000,000 write cycles.
Though it might be inadvisable to use a USB stick for a swap partition/file for an extended period… how many times are you planning on changing/editing your documents? :o
Plus if you throw wear-levelling into the equation…
You’re much more likely to break it or loose it before you wear it out 
Hey, its only possible to install up to 4 active boot partitions?
So you can only install up to 4 OS’s?
You only need ONE boot partition, from which you load ‘grub’. Once grub is loaded, it should be able to chain-load any OS from any disk / partition … 
So i can install as many operating systems i want? I thought you was limited to 4 active partitions, or so i was told :S
That’s a 4 Primary partitions limit… the rest will have to be in Extended partitions… the boot partition has to be one of the primaries.
That’s an interesting question actually, how many ‘extended’ partitions can a disk support? Not a limit I’ve ever hit …
Having said that, for multiple Linux distro’s you could use LVM rather than raw partitions in which case I think the limit is up in the 5 figure range …
So you are limited to 4. You can install as many extended partitions as you want, as long as your HDD has space
In Windows there is a limit of 25 extended + 1 primary partitions… but this is because there are only 26 letters in the alphabet
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/41189
but I don’t know the limits for Linux… or even if there is one, as Linux doesn’t use drive lettering.
I’m confussed about how many active operating systems you can install on a computer
In Linux… probably more than you will ever want to.
just stick the boot files in a primary, and create an extended partition with as many logical devices in it as you want.
There does appear to be a limit to the number of logical devices the Linux kernel can assign.
For an IDE/SATA drive the Max is 63 (4 primary/extended and 59 logical).
I haven’t verified this though… but it’s MANY more than Windows (26)
So basically you can have 4 partitions, but if one of them is an extended partition, you can have 59 logical devices (partitions) contained in it.
But as MP points out, if you use LVM (Linux volume management) this limit is effectively removed.
[EDIT]
This only applies to how many logical partitions a booted kernel can handle, it doesn’t imply that only 63 partitions are possible, just that the kernel that is currently running would only be able to see 63 at any given time (unless grouped together with LVM etc.)… nor does it imply you can only have 63 bootable partitions… at a guess I suppose this would boil down to a function of the bootloader and/or the size of your HDD.
Hey, im having problems in that OpenSUSE and Fedora just will not install! I hate the disk partitioning in both :-
Fedora just complains about ‘not enough space’ which i don’t get, and OpenSUSE just refuses all together 
You could always pre-partition it in Ubuntu? Can’t really recommend a specific method in either of those, last time I installed them they worked fine, but I really didn’t like them so much hence didn’t spend more than 10 mins playing …
Sorry for the seemingly obvious, but if Fedora is complaining about lack of space, then are you positive there is sufficient FREE (ie, unused) space on your hard disk?
Any error messages re the OpenSuSE installation problem?
OK your going to have to take us through what you are telling Fedora and OpenSUSE to do at the partitioning stage of the installation.
Your not just telling them to use the free space are you?.. if so, how much unpartitioned space is there?
by unpartitioned, I mean space on the drive without a partition, and not free space *inside" a partition.
Hey, sorry i proberly asked this before, but how many primary partitions can i have on a computer? because i read that the most was 4, but is that for windows only for for the total MAX you can have?
Read previous responses -
4 Primary partitions MAXIMUM
or
3 Primary +1 Extended… the Extendend partition can contain 23 logical partitions in Windows or 59 logical partitions in Linux.
Definition: Extended partitions: The partition table has room for only four partitions. For more partitions, one of these four partitions can be divided into many smaller partitions, called logical partitions. The original four are then called primary partitions. If a primary partition is subdivided in this way, it is known as an extended primary or extended partition. Typically, the first primary partition will be small ( /dev/hda1, say). The second primary partition will fill the rest of the disk as an extended partition ( /dev/hda2, say). In this case, the entries in the partition table of / dev/hda3 and /dev/hda4 will be blank. The extended partition can be subdivided repeatedly to give /dev/hda5, /dev/hda6, and so on.
Rute User’s Tutorial and Exposition
I just got a Dell Studio 1535 with Ubuntu Linux. It does not start properly. When i am start then start screen is “DELL” and after that the Ubuntu loading screen and It’s become like a watermark. I have no solution yet, So I think You should try another distribution to install on a Dell Studio 1535.
Erm, if it came “with” Linux , and it doesn’t work, that would imply it’s fault and needs to go back ???
I’ve done a bit of distro hopping. When choosing ‘looks can be deceptive’ as the saying goes.
Opensuse - slow package management and odd setup for repos (use Smart and much better - Yast ghastly)
Fedora - ‘um’ sorry forgot the ‘Y’ for package management. similar to ubuntu in many ways. a release is only for 11 months… so if they do a ‘dud’ (which they did when i tried it) you’ve only got a month to test and install the next… that’s if it’s ok. rpm is very slow for upgrading. APT is much better is the widespread opinion and from what i’ve experienced i’d agree. Centos is an enterprise clone that i’d use in preference to Fedora - although it is a slow release 2 yrs i think - and it’s six CDs you’ve got to download (why can’t they do the same as everyone else!!! - then i might use it).
Ubuntu - i have to thank them for getting me into the linux world but they seem to go from bad to worse imho. We’ve now divorced!
PCLOS - really nice visually. APT package management on RPMs… small repos. Talk about time for a beer while upgrading… typically with rpm you’ve got time for at least six. But Texstar is smart at producing a repo - it offers a test on update servers and connects you to the fastest one.
Mepis - excellent, stable well sorted KDE only distro - based on debian. I just prefer gnome or more lately xfce. I ran Mepis on my test machine which is only a P3 1Ghz 512mb and i have to say it seemed to run faster than gnome on there. Warren is damn good at producing a distro.
In summary i found that the ‘one-man’ distros produced a better product!!!
PCLOS, Mepis and Mint get my vote. Mint at present.