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?"
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2009-05-28
Agreed on Linux users and the general wealth of computer savvy people who brave the Linux world... However, let's get to the generic computer user... Most of the installed base of the world's desktop computer users are Microsoft Windows users. During the DOS days Microsoft users were savvy computer people. Now Microsoft users generally know nothing about computers. I have many friends who use computers to play Freecell, write documents, view pictures and videos, and use the internet. They don't care about ANYTHING else. They think I'm a computer GOD because I can install a new application on a Windows computer. They would NEVER EVER attempt such a tremendously complicated task... I really am not joking. And so, if GNU/Linux really wants to break out of the developer world, application developers need to realize that the APPLICATION needs to present the user with a friendly "intuitive" interface and lead that user "by the hand" to where the user accessible data is stored... The FS need not be changed, nor muddled with at all... IF the FS was broken, then invest portions of the limited programmer resources to fix it...
Example... A few months ago someone at work sent around an email to everyone indicating that if you go into the preferences in Internet Explorer you can actually delete the temporary files that have gobbled up all your hard drive space... Is this problem an FS problem with Windows, a user problem, or an application problem? It's an APPLICATION problem... the application developer did not inform the user of where the data was and how the stored data could affect system operation.... The example also shows the technical level of the average installed base of computer users.
Edited 2009-05-29 05:42 UTC
Member since:2006-05-12
Your comment only further reinforces my point. You state that the windows users you know are idiots that never do anything outside of basic tasks. What you overlooked was the fact that they are not Linux users, you are.
Most the people who install and evaluate Linux but decide to keep booting Windows are far more like you and me then the people that view us as guru's.
I think there is a large number of hobbyists out there who more accurately fit the profile of a potential Linux user than the windows users you described.
I have met /thousands/ of semi technical users IRL who are not just clueless morons who have installed/used/evaluated Linux at some point but decided to keep booting windows for varying reasons.
Maybe your experiences are different, but the majority of the people I know who regularly use a computer are also able to point and click through a windows software install.
If you are designing a Linux distro with idiots in mind that cant click next > next > finish in a windows software install and ignoring hobbyists you are doing it wrong. It is that simple. For the love of god, can we drop the idea that Linux users don't need to explore outside of /home?
For home computing, user = administrator. Your "admin" installs applications on your home desktop for you like your dentist brushes your teeth for you every morning.
Member since:2005-07-01
Hi,
If you have to install things outside your package manager (and please do try to avoid doing that 
there are packages to help you do that sanely. One I happen to recall the name of is GNU stow, which will create a folder in /usr/local/stow for each application that you use it to install with all of that application's files.
This is just a mechanism for using the --prefix option of various tools. The bsd ports systems do this as well, which is why apache is in /usr/local/apache on eg FreeBSD (or was last I looked
hth,
adric
Member since:
2006-05-12
OSX uses FHS, but from my understanding, applications are usually installed in a specific application folder rather than having individual parts of it moved to the FHS directory of choice.
I don't see any reason why we can't just append the FHS to include an applications folder (/apps) than is for things like GUI applications like /apps/firefox/ and let things like CLI binaries remain in the current FHS location.
I hate trying to track down bits and pieces of an installed application especially when I stray from using the standard package manager to install said applicatiuon and I am not able to check the package manager database for it. This would help solve that.
For the people that are saying people "don't need to know" where anything outside of /home is, please consider that most people fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, not at the ends.
I have yet to meet a single Linux user that never tried to dig deeper than files in /home, so for the sake of sanity could we please stop generalizing the mythical "user" in this way?
There is this perception that the mythical home user needs to know absolutely nothing because they all have a mythical "admin" totally at their disposal with an answer for everything. This could not be farther from the truth.
This complete misunderstanding of who the end user is makes meeting end user needs pretty difficult.