Comment # 5 on bug 1099599 from Stefan Hundhammer

I think the problem here is wrong expectations.

While there probably are users who expect this to be some kind of drag'n'drop
tool where you can freely move partitions around at a moment's whim, there are
others (which I believe are the majority) who want to do more advanced tasks
with this expert tool, and sometimes this may involve clearly specifying where
a partition should go. This is the exact opposite to your idea of partitions
that are "floating around" at that point.

Think about complex setups. Think about RAID and LVM and all those things, and
all the possible permutations thereof.

Also, think about consistency. Partitioning is a critical task; it has the
potential to not only kill the Linux you are about to install, but also the
Windows system that is also on the disk(s), or even your other Linux (or BSD or
whatever) that you would like to keep. So, users expect such a tool to offer no
surprises.

Now think about what you proposed: That the partitioner should behave
differently during a new installation vs. using it in the installed system, or
even using it during upgrade. During a new installation, it might have a
concept of partitions that are not yet finalized and that can, as you called
it, "float"; resize one or the other (as long as there is enough space), move
them around within the free space, maybe even reorder them.

In the installed system, however, the partitions are by all means finalized, so
they cannot float, so the user interface would have to behave very differently.

Wouldn't that surprise many users? I think it would. And surprises are the last
thing that users want from a tool as critical as the partitioner.

So, the tradeoff is a somewhat more clumsy user interface, but it offers no
surprises. It is predictable.