Could Linux Abandon Directories in Favour of Tagging?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 4th Nov 2010 22:40 UTC, submitted by rhyder
Linux "For a fairly scruffy looking guy, I have a surprisingly healthy approach to organising my files. However, I'm constantly pushing up against the limitations of a system that is based around directories. I'm convinced that Linux needs to make greater use of tagging, but I'm also beginning to wonder if desktop Linux could abandon the hierarchical directory structure entirely."
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RE[4]: Tagged filesystems
by phoenix on Fri 5th Nov 2010 16:26 UTC in reply to "RE[3]: Tagged filesystems"
phoenix
Member since:
2005-07-11

I suppose if the tagging system was fast and robust enough you could simulate directories using tags.


Precisely. Tags do not need to replace folders. They just need to supplement them. Adding this to the GUI is easy, as done in Windows 7 with Libraries, and in GMail with IMAP (tags == folders), and in Zimbra (dynamic/saved searches == folders). And, didn't BeOS do this 10 years ago?

The fun part will be retrofitting it into the VFS/FS layer, so that it also works at the CLI level. ;) There's nothing worse than have a virtual folder in your GUI file manager, and being unable to find it via "ls" or "cd" at a bash prompt.

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