I set up all partitions as /ext3...

The parts on the USB drive may be FAT - I certainly can't touch them AT ALL as the 'owner' and even as root - EVEN WHEN I FINALLY GET ROOT TO RUN!!!!!!

I had enormous hassles setting up rational access permissions at all - I had to set up extra groups in such a way that the files can be shared as desired - but I can't change the default groups - EVEN AS ROOT!

As I age, and my micromotor coordination gets more annoying, I prefer to use the GUI - any system that insists that things that 'work' can ONLY be done from the command line is 'immature'... a real cynic might say 'puerile'... :-)

As a single user box, it might be ok, but is useless as multiuser...