: removable devices

[Gabriel Dragffy]

Fine, but I have used windows all my computer life and two months ago switch 
to Kubuntu. I am dual booting but rarely need to boot into windows. I think 
that no matter what you do with the *ix system users from windows will have 
to learn new things. Personally I have had little trouble to adapting to the 
new locations. If I click on my HOME button then Konqueror takes me there, 
why does it matter to windows users whether the address is media:/ or /media? 
They don't have to type any of it any way. But it does matter to the system 
as its f***ing the other apps up.

On Thursday 27 April 2006 20:43, Donatas G. wrote:
> Gabriel Dragffy wrote:
> > It seems I have found the solution to my own problem. When browsing files
> > on my USB drive through a KDE app it uses the address media:/sda1/????  
> > the apps treat this as a remote address. If I replace this address with
> > the rather more simple /media/sda1/?? then everything is hunky-dory. I
> > gotta ask what is the logic behind browsing files with such things as
> > system:/ media:/ file:/  It only seems to cause problems and doesn't
> > solve any. I like many others have been caught by the system:/  home bug
> > and it's absurd, infact encountering this bug actually gave me the idea
> > to check what addresses KDE apps were using for my USB devices.
> >
> > Are the developers going to change this ridiculous behaviour?
>
> I guess the idea is to go beyond the unix "limitation" of having all the
> different storage devices being represented as directories, while the
> users (especially those coming from windows world) are rather accustomed
> to treating devices as separate devices with their own hierarchies. This
> is especially true of the dual-boot systems.
>
> So We have:
>
> Windows             | regular unix    | KDE
>   system disc C:\   |   /media/hda1   |   media:/hda1
>   data disc D:\     |   /media/hda3   |   media:/hda3
>   nonexistent       |   /             |   media:/hda2
>   floppy disc A:\   |   /media/floppy |   media:/fd0
>   cdrom disc E:\    |   /media/hdc0   |   media:/hdc0
>   flash disc F:\    |   /media/sda1   |   media:/sda1
>
> I, having a double boot system, rather like the KDE way of doing it - I
> like partitions/removable media to have their own separate root and an
> independent directory tree.
>
> However:
>
> 1. the KDE system is not finished up, has a lot of bugs, which makes it
> much less usable than the regular unix system for many a user;
>
> 2. the KDE system is not as descriptive as windows either; a non
> technical user would never call a disc media:/hda1 (or /media/hda1 to
> that matter, but if you can rename /media/hda1 to /media/win_d no
> problem, and you can even rename the link to the partition hda1 in
> media:/ to win_d, that does not change the path once you click on the
> link - it is back to media:/hda1/ !!!)
>
> 3. the KDE system is confusing:
>     * media:/hda1/file.txt
>     * system:/media/hda1/file.txt
>     * file:/media/hda1/file.txt
>     * /media/hda1/file.txt
> -- all mean the same thing!!!
>
> 4. Even if you could work it out in a more useable, user-friendly
> manner, it would be very hard to establish a common standard; did you
> notice that all the system:/ and media:/ thing seems  to be coming out
> of nowhere, it is not documentend anythere, there are no serious
> discussions among KDE developers and users (except for limited forums
> like this - correct me if I am wrong!)
>
> My suggestion:
>
> I think the system:/ and media:/ could turn into a nice innovation, but
> FOR NOW I would suggest patching Kubuntu so that, like it is already
> done with system:/home, all the links to media devices in system:/ and
> media:/ would simply point to a specified partition AS IT IS MOUNTED IN
> THE UNIX FILE TREE.
>
> So, once in media:/ I click an icon "flash" (which is renamed from sda1)
> I would be kicked into /media/flash/ (the name, again, I choose myself).
>
> All the best to Kubuntu and KDE architects! Thank you for the wonderful
> desktop!
>
> Donatas G.
> KDE translation into Lithuanian team coordinator