The Challenge: the Manageable Computer
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 23rd Aug 2008 15:37 UTC
Editorial Earlier this week, we ran a story on GoboLinux, and the distribution's effort to replace the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard with a more pleasant, human-readable, and logical design. A lot of people liked the idea of modernising/replacing the FHS, but just as many people were against doing so. Valid arguments were presented both ways, but in this article, I would like to focus on a common sentiment that came forward in that discussion: normal users shouldn't see the FHS, and advanced users are smart enough to figure out how the FHS works.
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Wrong sentiment
by Delgarde on Sun 24th Aug 2008 10:56 UTC
Delgarde
Member since:
2008-08-19

The article states that the common sentiment from the previous article was that normal users should never see the filesystem. Now from my reading of the posts, the more common belief was that users should never *need to* see the filesystem, which is quite a different message.

Thom interprets this argument as a statement of elitism, that users are being prevented from learning how their system works, going against all the principles of openness. Nonsense. It's a statement that users shouldn't be forced to learn about things that shouldn't be relevant to them. They should be welcome to do so should they choose, but it should never be a requirement in order to successfully use their computers. Windows users manage just fine without knowing anything outside of "My Documents", and Linux desktop users should be able to do the same.

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