Re: Why KDE4?

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Patricia Max <pam@xxxxxxxxxxx> dixit:

> And last, but not least, when I read about "folders" on Unix, I want to scream.  That term is not part of my Unix vocabulary.  It was not part of system V, it was not part of BSD, it was not part of other Unix flavors such as SunOS, and it was not part of early linux systems.  It belongs to Bill Gates.

You should take a bit of distance, here. "Directory" is a very wrong term for the meaning it is supposed to have; simply one of numerous legacy words dating back to the 70's, probably even earlier. "Folder" is far better, I hope you're cool enough to admit this fact; it even goes well along with the 'file' metaphor I guess.
Also, while not sure of this, I bet this term does not "belong to Bill Gates" but instead was first introduced by any other system designed before windows; whose designers were better at terminology than the ones of unix. Even if 'folder happens to have been introduced by m$, well let's steal one of the very few good things that came out of there; instead of sticking at bad choices for wrong pride reasons (I first learnt on unix myself).

Imo, Linux's extremely poor terminology is a major obstacle for newcomers; it's one of the reasons why potential power users with enough good will, skill, and even past competence, will never get it. This would not be such serious if linux did not _require_ simple users to tweak in the beast's guts simply to have it work more or less as expected. Result: many simply go back where they come from -- even if they were highly motivated to jump into the FLOSS world, possibly for moral reasons. Proper naming is *super* important, words lead our thoughts; either they help, or prevent us to understand.

Denis
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la vita e estrany

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