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[–] 102 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (30 children)

So tell me, what do you call the object drawn in this picture, taken from a popular Linux operating system?

A picture of a folder icon from Ubuntu

Say my name.

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  • [–] 73 points 3 years ago (11 children)
  • [–] 57 points 3 years ago (9 children)
  • [–] 51 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    This mouse? Believe it or not, file.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    I've always enjoyed this about my pathetic attempts to get into *nix, but what are directors, then? Are they somehow a 'file' as well?

    Honest question - I'm just a Windows doofus

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    Logically, everything stored to disc is a file. There are no physical folds or branching on a harddrive's platter. Everything is (this is simplified) listed one at a time, end to end sequentially. A directory is just a special text file that lists all the addresses to files that are logically "inside of it".

    With journaling file systems (aka modern file systems), this is either replaced or superceeded by the journal.

    Moreso, in Linux, most things are also logically treated as files. In Windows, some settings are stored in a special database known as the registry--Linux has not. It just has text files. In windows, devices are in the device manager, in Linux, devices are just another directory. In Windows you have a special task manager to view open processes, in Linux we have /proc which is a virtual directory. Windows: user permissions are managed with the active directory application. Linux: file permissions. etc.

    This means, instead of using special apps to view things, you can, if so inclined, just navigate and look at files using the usual terminal.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    Though to add: many things in your file system are listed as β€œfiles” in a directory, but are completely virtual with varying ways on what they do when written to/read from. (Also, linux has streams and files, not only files) E.g. /dev/null will read zeros, and discard data written to. But it has no physical backing.

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  • [+] 26 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (2 children)
  • β€œI use Linux as my operating system,” I state proudly to the unkempt, bearded man. He swivels around in his desk chair with a devilish gleam in his eyes, ready to mansplain with extreme precision. β€œActually,” he says with a grin, β€œLinux is just the kernel. You use GNU+Linux.” I don’t miss a beat and reply with a smirk, β€œI use Alpine, a distro that doesn’t include the GNU coreutils, or any other GNU code. It’s Linux, but it’s not GNU+Linux.”

    The smile quickly drops from the man’s face. His body begins convulsing and he foams at the mouth as he drop to the floor with a sickly thud. As he writhes around he screams β€œI-IT WAS COMPILED WITH GCC! THAT MEANS IT’S STILL GNU!” Coolly, I reply: β€œIf Windows was compiled with GCC, would that make it GNU?” I interrupt his response with β€œAnd work is being made on the kernel to make it more compiler-agnostic. Even if you were correct, you won’t be for long.”

    With a sickly wheeze, the last of the man’s life is ejected from his body. He lies on the floor, cold and limp. I’ve womansplained him to death.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (5 children)
  • [–] 22 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (4 children)

    OK, I see you're having some trouble. No sweat. We're all friends here. Many of us don't get it on the first try. Let me help you. It's a symbolic representation of an actual physical object which you can buy here today. There's a nice description at the store page with the following pic along with it:

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