Going to install Ubuntu 10.10 on new intel x25M 80GB SSD. It will be fresh install. I have been googling for past few days and getting overwhelming articles/blogs/Q&As. One particularly very useful being:

Optimize for SSD (I could not post other links as i dont have enough credits)

But with so many suggestions and differences of opinions (on different links) this simple OS install process seems to be daunting task to me and I really want to stick with ubuntu (although have used for very short period of time).

Can someone help me by answering few questions (yes they are repeated as i couldnt comprehend the answers elsewhere)

1. which file system (ext2/3/4 or something else)? (consider SSD life)
2. can it be changed after installation?
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.
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?
5. should i consider putting additional 1GB RAM to avoid swap space?

Linux experience - absolute novice

intended usage - heavy browsing, programming, regular video/music and some other non-CPU/RAM-intensive programs. will backup big files to an external hard drive.

laptop config - 3 yr old vaio, core2 duo, 2GB RAM

Please pardon the repetition and i really appreciate anyone helping me getting started with ubuntu.