• Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
    1032·
    1 year ago

    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.

        • flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works
          7·
          1 year ago

          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

          • s_s@lemmy.one
            7·
            1 year ago

            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.

            • kaba0@programming.devEnglish
              3·
              1 year ago

              Though to add: many things in your file system are listed as “files” 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.

    • fuckerheader@lemmy.world
      293·
      1 year ago

      I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

      Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

      There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

      • complacent_jerboa@lemmy.world
        9·
        1 year ago

        “I 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. “Actually,” he says with a grin, “Linux is just the kernel. You use GNU+Linux.” I don’t miss a beat and reply with a smirk, “I 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 “I-IT WAS COMPILED WITH GCC! THAT MEANS IT’S STILL GNU!” Coolly, I reply: “If Windows was compiled with GCC, would that make it GNU?” I interrupt his response with “And 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.