5 ms·

All of those are optional restrictions, not mandatory. On Windows, it's (practically) mandatory. Maybe some Windows wizards could get around the mandatory rest

by sli 10mo ago

All of those are optional restrictions, not mandatory. On Windows, it's (practically) mandatory. Maybe some Windows wizards could get around the mandatory restrictions, but an average Linux user can get around the optional ones.

rusk 10mo ago
Streaming as defacto metaphor for file access goes back to tape drives. Random Access patterns make more sense with today’s media yet we’re all still fscanf-ing Of course there are alternatives but the resource-as-stream metaphor is so ubiquitous in Unix, it’s hard to avoid.
GoblinSlayer 10mo ago
Drive letters are just /mnt, you can get around that, even with GUI.
- darkwater 10mo ago
  So why a default Windows install still uses and shows C:?
  - GoblinSlayer 10mo ago
    Because A is reserved for floppy drive, and B - for zip drive.
    - otterley 10mo ago
      Drive B was always a floppy disk drive. Zip disks presented themselves with drive letters higher than B (usually D: assuming you had a single hard disk). However, some (all?) Zip drives could also accept legacy 3.5" floppies, and those would show up as B.
      - DiabloD3 10mo ago
        You're confused and you're thinking of the LS-120 SuperDisk. On some machines, it could be setup to appear as A: or B: when a 3.5" floppy was inserted. Zip drives were never compatible with 3.5" floppies, and always were enumerated using the first available external storage letter (ie, D: in typical machines).
        otterley 10mo ago
        You're right! Thank you for the correction.
    - dragonwriter 10mo ago
      A: and B: were both for floppies, dual floppy systems were around and common, both with and without hard disks, long before Zip disks existed, and Zip disks came around far too late (1994!) to influence the MS-DOS naming standard.
    - darkwater 10mo ago
      No, A: and B: were for floppies, when having 2 floppy readers was the norm. But anyway ignoring the sarcasm my question was implying: if this is totally customizable in Windows, why Microsoft still ships C: (or whatever other letter) as the default name for the first user partition? Show it to legacy programs with hardcoded values to maintain compatibility, but at least in Explorer and MS controlled software, use some more modern/legible name.

by sli 10mo ago

rusk 10mo ago

Streaming as defacto metaphor for file access goes back to tape drives. Random Access patterns make more sense with today’s media yet we’re all still fscanf-ing Of course there are alternatives but the resource-as-stream metaphor is so ubiquitous in Unix, it’s hard to avoid.

GoblinSlayer 10mo ago

Drive letters are just /mnt, you can get around that, even with GUI.

darkwater 10mo ago
So why a default Windows install still uses and shows C:?
- GoblinSlayer 10mo ago
  Because A is reserved for floppy drive, and B - for zip drive.
  - otterley 10mo ago
    Drive B was always a floppy disk drive. Zip disks presented themselves with drive letters higher than B (usually D: assuming you had a single hard disk). However, some (all?) Zip drives could also accept legacy 3.5" floppies, and those would show up as B.
    - DiabloD3 10mo ago
      You're confused and you're thinking of the LS-120 SuperDisk. On some machines, it could be setup to appear as A: or B: when a 3.5" floppy was inserted. Zip drives were never compatible with 3.5" floppies, and always were enumerated using the first available external storage letter (ie, D: in typical machines).
      - otterley 10mo ago
        You're right! Thank you for the correction.
  - dragonwriter 10mo ago
    A: and B: were both for floppies, dual floppy systems were around and common, both with and without hard disks, long before Zip disks existed, and Zip disks came around far too late (1994!) to influence the MS-DOS naming standard.
  - darkwater 10mo ago
    No, A: and B: were for floppies, when having 2 floppy readers was the norm. But anyway ignoring the sarcasm my question was implying: if this is totally customizable in Windows, why Microsoft still ships C: (or whatever other letter) as the default name for the first user partition? Show it to legacy programs with hardcoded values to maintain compatibility, but at least in Explorer and MS controlled software, use some more modern/legible name.