Ubuntu Desktop Unit Consistency (LP: #369525)
Remco
remco47 at gmail.com
Mon Jun 1 01:57:08 UTC 2009
On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 3:12 AM, Christopher Chan
<christopher.chan at bradbury.edu.hk> wrote:
> RAM comes in multiples of 1024. Network throughput is also in multiples
> of 1024. Disk storage is expressed in multiples of 1024 under any
> operating system. base-10 kilobytes/kilobits/whateverbytes/whateverbits
> are only used by disk manufacturers (hence the 'discrepancy' between
> that the label on the disk says and what the operating system says) and
> misconceptions of certain network equipment manufacturers (eg:
> 100megabit/1000megabit) being base-10.
Bit rate is measured in base 10:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_rate
> Each block on disk remains 512 bits (half a proper kilobyte) and so
> going for base-10 kilobytes requires translation while using proper
> kilobytes requires no translation.
>
> base-10 kilobytes/megabytes/gigabytes have no place in software. They
> belong solely on hard disk labels along with their footnote indicating
> that they are the wrong kilobyte/megabyte/gigabyte definition.
Base 10 is easier to calculate for humans. Try calculating the sum of
754 MiB and 1.42 GiB without using a calculator.
If the conversion is done properly by Nautilus, it should be no
problem. At the moment, Nautilus lies to us: it talks about MBs, while
in fact they are those pesky MiBs.
Remco
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