Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 28th May 2009 19:17 UTC
Ask OSNews is apparently quite popular among you guys; the questions just keep on coming in. Since David took on the first two, we decided to let me handle this one - it's an area I've personally covered before on OSNews: file system layouts. One of our readers, a Linux veteran, studied the GoboLinux effort to introduce a new filesystem layout, and wondered: "Why not adopt the more sensible file system from GoboLinux as the new LSB standard?"
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Member since:
2006-01-24
Linux user since redhat4 here. I understand the history of the FHS, and why each folder exists. I understand there are benefits. I also think it's an obfuscated, outdated load of crap and there's no reason why we can't figure a new structure that has the benefits of the old system, but is innately more comprehensible.
Why bin? Because that's where your 'binaries' are, right? oh, except there are programs now that are text files run through an interpreter, so that doesn't really apply. A user's files aren't under /usr, my webserver by default isn't under /svr, it's under /var/www. /etc? Yeah, something about etcetera really says 'config files'. Seriously, who thought /etc was a good name?
Names have one purpose: to DESCRIBE an object. That's what the FHS pretty much universally fails to do these days, is accurately describe things in modern, understandable terms. How can anyone argue against making folder names more accurate to what they contain? How is making things LESS comprehensible, better?
I tried Gobo a few years ago and found that a lot of the programs weren't very stable. Maybe they've corrected that, I don't know, haven't had a chance to go back to it and play around. I definitely am rooting for *anyone* going back and rethinking some of the ancient eccentricities in the *nix world that should've been left back in the 70s.