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Both are noobs. Its Linux, they’re all files!
So what’s the difference?
My intuition is that
directoryis the older term and refers to something existing on the file system whilefoldercan be that but also includes “virtual folders” that group together different files from across the file system like when photo manager shows you categories like ‘recently viewed’ or ‘taken in 2023’.Uhhh directories are files where other files are stored in a computer, folders are pieces of paper used to store pieces of paper (or a file used to store another files in a computer)
A directory outside of computing is simply a list of items with a common characteristic. A list of names at an apartment building for example.
folders are only considered files in linux, in windows, its a mess
something about not unix operating systems not being valid
obligatory mansplaining that Linux is not Unix
obligatory its a Unix system, I know this
Directory is the older term, but when they started making computers user friendly they needed a friendlier word for it. Folders make sense because people understand putting files in folders in real life.
Aha, to me it’s an apt metaphors as files go into folders and it fits with the whole desktop analogy.
Exactly, except like all computer metaphors they break down when you get into the details. I can’t put a document in more than one folder and update them at the same time IRL like I can do with a symlink.
You bring up a pretty good point. Whenever I have a personal document that could go into multiple categories (eg a travel insurance certificate can go into travel, insurance, or finance folder) I place it in all 3 at once with hard links. What’s more is that if I intuitively first search for a document in place A but it’s actually in place B I simply place a link in A for the next time.
Before I learned a bit about file systems I didn’t even conceive of such a thing being possible; precisely because the folder metaphor had imprinted upon me the physical world constraint that things can only be in a single place at once.
None.
You make and use folders
I make directories and call them folders anyway
We are not the same
WELL ACKSHUALLY
I mix and match. I used to have an Amiga back in the day, and they were called directories there. As such, most of my parlance is from those days. But most of my work life has been on Windows. So, folder has sneaked into everyday usage.
I have been switching a number of computers over to Linux over the last few months in preparation for the end of Windows 10. But honestly shit like this that makes me think, maybe Windows 11 isn’t so bad?
Tired of users’ elitism? Get some corporate elitism instead!
What’s wrong babe? We’ve just moved your taskbar, created one another directories for program files and documents, and renamed This Computer to Our Computer. It’s not a big deal!
Have you ever actually seen someone care about that particular choice of terminology, without being sarcastic trying to be funny?
apple users
What terminology do Apple users passionately care about?
devices not being called laptop or pc
I mean, calling them Mac(Book) does clarify that they run macOS. And historically „Mac and PC“ have been used to differentiate between Windows and macOS, not just by Mac users. Never met anyone who persisted on MacBooks not being laptops. People just call them MacBooks because that’s what they are…
TBF, most of the time (with a small exception for the period from 2006 to 2020ish) it would have been wrong to call a Mac a PC, as PC (and PC compatible) is the name of a specific platform based on the 8086 and compatible processors with a specific BIOS and a specific IO-interfaces. And Mac’s most of the time are not PC compatible. And I’ve never heard anyone say, that a MacBook is not a laptop.
As an IT guy in the early 2000s, it was really annoying to see all the “Mac vs. PC” arguments. PC stands for Personal Computer - a Mac is literally a PC! When I was a kid in the '80s-'90s, my schools all used Apple IIe computers (and later versions of Apple products as I got older), but they always called them PCs.
But those Apple ads convincing people to ditch the frumpy old guy PC for the young, hot Mac guy did their job, and pop culture decided that a Mac wasn’t a PC.
PC stands for Personal Computer, but that doesn’t mean that every personal computer is a PC. Just as VW stands for Volkswagen but not every wagon used by folks is a VW.
Calling any personal computer PC would cause all sorts of confusion, as PCs are able to run specific pieces of software (which were literally marketed as »PC 3,5"«, »PC CD ROM« or something of the like) such as »PC (or MS) DOS«, Windows etc. It would have been pretty annoying if someone sold you a game, telling you that it runs on PCs, leaving it to you to guess which kind of personal computer they meant: Atari ST, Apple II, C64, or IBM PC. All of them are personal computers, but only the PC is a PC.
Btw, all that was set in stone already in the 1980s and 1990, decades before Apple launched the Mac Vs. PC campaign in 2006. If your teacher called an Apple IIe PC, he was wrong about that, even before it was cool.
🙄
I typically call them folders when going through the GUI and directories when using CLI.
This is a fact.
Big Brother approves
I never realized I subconsciously did this until your pointing it out. Huh. Thanks for that insight I suppose, haha
well it sorta just makes sense, the gui presents it as a folder, you can move things around in it like a folder, conceptually it presents them in a way to make you think they are physical things stored in a physical folder/box. cli it really just feels like you are using a string of characters indicating the desired file, it feels more like a directory that way, even if it always really is that way, just showcased differently in the gui.
brain doing brainy things, strings/lines vs pictures/labels
Exactly my thoughts.
To move a folder (gui), you just do it. To move a directory (cli) you have to implicitly say you want the contents too.
Funny!!! I love Harry potter and Hagrid is so sweet!
In our forum you just give the coordinates in your woven core memory…
Been using Linux as my primary OS for (counts on fingers)… decades now. Called them folders the whole time. Never had a problem with it. Nobody who matters cares.
In parlance I have found you can say ‘what directory is that folder in?’ If you want to have a user give you a full path.
Until now, i care a ton!
Oh wait, “Nobody who matters”
dang, nevermindExactly, thank you. My thought when seeing this was “who the fuck cares?”
I care.
The real hard Linux nerds will just call them files
Everything. Is. A. File.
You just put in my head an idea for the most boring “real or cake” spin-off imaginable
No one cares
As long as you don’t call it a path.
Isn’t that what a hierarchical string of them are called?
Idk about hierarchy but
PATHis a thing and the proper terminology is filepath, so the word path becomes ambiguated as it could be used to refer to either. Hence why I say it is bad practice to use it as a primary reference in conversation. Otherwise you’ll get interns and users modifying theirPATHfor no damn reason and wondering why nothing works.
Always have, and always will! /waves old man cane around in a threatening manner
it’s directory, if you refer to it in a cli context and folder if you refer to it in a gui context
alias cf=cdNote: I don’t actually do this. I’m not a monster.
Cloud foundry? Not familiar with cf
Given that
cdis “change directory,” I assumecfis meant to be “change folder.”Yes and it’s telling the computer to treat cf as if it was cd
It’s interesting that Windows also uses cd, even though they call them folders 😂.
