Upsides and Downsides of having a Home Partition?

[Puzzled Guy]

Hi Guys,

I have an Ubuntu-Windows dual-boot system on an MSi Wind U100.
My 300 GB HDD is partitioned like this (not counting the Windows partitions):

20 GB partition that mounts /
4 GB Linux-Swap
and a 160.19 GB partition that mounts /home

My question:
If I was to do a clean install of Ubuntu Lucid Lynx when it comes out, what advantages and disadvantages would there be in having a separate /home partition?

[lorsen]

Well you can clean of format / completely for the new install and still have your home partition.
If it is on the same partition this is not so easy ;-)

[nothingspecial]

All your settings will remain eg

Your desktop will look the same (once you`ve installed any packages that make it the way it is)

Your music player will know where your music is

Your firefox bookmarks and addons will be there

etc etc etc

But

Because you, obviously have anything important backed up sometimes it`s nice to clear out all the junk you`ve accumulated in the last 6 months.

[Puzzled Guy]

Would those settings include things like disabled services, software sources, etc?