Installing Ubuntu on a SSD
Solution 1:
I'll start by saying that the answer you linked already summarizes all the optimizations you may need.
Next, to answer your questions:
1. Which file system (ext2/3/4 or something else)? (consider SSD life)
ext4 is a good filesystem even for SSD, so that would be my suggestion. (If you want performance so bad you should try XFS )
2. Can it be changed after installation?
Yes, but it is not trivial, so choose well from the start :)
3. Should I partition the disk? (as we do in traditional HDD) for now, no plan of dual booting. Only Ubuntu will live on scarce space of 80GB SSD.
This is really not a matter of SSD, but your personal choice. If you were to ask me I'll say no; don't partition the disk you will end in loosing useful space. (If you end with a partition with 2GB free and another with 1GB free, you theoretically have 3Gb free but cannot copy a 3GB file... that space is wasted )
4. I have 2 GB RAM, should I still allocate swap space (if I dont allocate swap space, can i still hibernate the machine)? will swap space impact SSD life? I wouldn't worry so much about the SSD life ( modern one can run for decades ), however 2GB of RAM are enough not to need the swap partition. Finally the swap partition is needed in order to hibernation, so if you want to hibernate the machine then you need the swap partition.
5. Should I consider putting additional 1GB RAM to avoid swap space? 1GB more or ram is always useful :) do it if you can.
6. What is partition aligning? is it needed to be done before installing the Ubuntu OS or can be done later?
That is the procedure where you align clusters, blocks and chunks. IMHO it is only needed on servers with a lot of data throughput. A good tool to do partition alignment is GParted. Of course this should be done before installing Ubuntu.
Hope this helps :)
Solution 2:
I will try to answer the questions that I can:
EXT4 Is one of the best filesystems currently available, so I'd suggest going with this.
You can change some linux file systems after installation (ext3->ext4, ext4->btrfs, for example). Here is a link that explains changing ext3 to ext4.
Not the clearest of questions, but Ubuntu will automatically create partitions.
and 5.You will need swap space of equal or greater size (in relation to your RAM), in order to hibernate. So long as you are not doing anything intensive, your system will mostly avoid using swap so long as there is sufficient RAM. Maybe a good consideration would be to add more RAM if possible - give it about 4GB. If you don't allocate swap space, there is another option (not recommended) - hibernating to a file (I will add the links to my answer later).
Best wishes! I will update my answer with relevant links, as well as possibly resources for learning Ubuntu/Linux :).
Solution 3:
Concerning Swap on SSDs:
I wouldn't care too much about putting a swap-partition on a SSD. The swap is, like said before, only used if there's no RAM left. But then there are "few" sequential writes and "many" random reads. That's exactly a form of usage SSDs excel in. - The same principle is used by microsofts "readyboost" technologie, only with USB-Flashdrives.
Solution 4:
Not to throw a monkey wrench in, but checking what the manufacturer of the SSD says about the need for those techniques might pay off.
The folks who made my SDD assert that I don't need to worry about TRIM and optimizations, etc. They claim their firmware makes all of that unnecessary, that the SSD should be used like any other drive. I took them at their word and so far so good.