Re: Control hidden folder/file settings?
- From: blmblm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: 22 Jan 2006 03:33:05 GMT
In article <4hCAf.3536$rH5.1448@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
mayayana <mayayanaXX1a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Your comment about "redefine '.' globally", though .... For someone
>> who's spent enough hours, over enough years, in Unixworld, it's
>> kind of a startling thought. Unix tends to be almost endless
>> customizable, but I guess there are a few things that *are*
>> hardcoded somewhere!
>>
> It's an unusual experience for me, coming from
>Windows. Linux is nice in the way that things are
>made to use rather than made mainly with a business
>strategy in mind.- the same way that Firefox is designed
>to be a good browser while Internet Explorer is
>designed to satisfy online commerce and corporate
>customers.
Also, I think you're more likely to find applications designed by
geeks for geeks (and thus "expert friendly" rather than "novice
friendly") in Unix/Linux than in Windows. IMO/IME, anyway.
> On the other hand, I'd be shocked if I deleted a
>folder in Windows and the program replaced it,
>along with its contents, without even informing me.
The only Linux programs I can think of that behave this way
are the ones that create a directory for user configuration
information if one doesn't exist. Don't Windows applications
behave this way too? How else could it work? Oh, I suppose
if they don't find a suitable directory/folder they could bring
up an installation dialog of some kind. Yeah. Maybe that's a
better behavior, though IMO it has its annoying aspects too.
>And I can always control where things are stored in
>Windows, while Linux software installs without allowing
>me any input.
Make that "some Linux software"? For most of the programs I've
installed on Linux, there *is* a way to install in some place
other than the default, but maybe it's not so obvious how to make
that happen. Mostly I install stuff from the command line, and
in that environment usually you specify "install in a non-default
place" with a command-line option.
The location of user configuration files is another matter.
For that, I think the typical ways to override the default are
with command-line parameters or environment variables, when the
program is started rather than when it's installed.
> I'm not sure what the "paradigmatic" difference is
>there. Maybe it's a case of Linux working on 2 levels,
>"geek and newbie", while Windows provides for a
>continuum of expertise? I don't know...but I've been
>pondering that.
Hm!!!! It's interesting that you would say this, because
I've heard people say something similar, but with the operating
systems reversed -- that Windows provides two levels, "novice" and
"uber-expert", while Unix provides more of a continuum, where you
start out not knowing much and not being able to do much, and then
you gradually build up a technical "bag of tricks" that allow you
to do more and more. But this was in the context of working from
the command-line with old-time Unix tools. Maybe that's different.
Something else to think about it?
Speaking of paradigm differences, if you're interested in such
things, you may find it educational to learn some of those
old-time Unix command-line tools. I started in that environment
(well, really I started with punched cards, and CLI programs on
terminals connected to a mainframe were a major advance, and so
forth), and when I first was exposed to Windows, I made a lot of
mistakes before I figured out that this system was *different*
in some fundamental way. You may be well on your way to being
able to tell a similar story about Linux, which IMO is all to
the good. "Welcome to the world beyond Windows"?
--
| B. L. Massingill
| ObDisclaimer: I don't speak for my employers; they return the favor.
.
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