When i first came to linux I found the directory structure quite confusing. Just an idea but wouldn't it be nice if a big distro like Mandrake tried a new one. I find that locating programs in particular is difficult. Windows give the nice program files option but linux has a few folders with a million executables. I think either a new structure or even a pseudo structure would be nice. Just a directory with symbolic links that looks nice and will save people a lot of time looking through directories with names that don't seem to mean much.

Just an idea.
Boffy

locate is your friend..

I have to agree with Boffy. For one thing the executables are really installed in different places (/usr/bin /usr/local and /usr/share etc.) Sometimes after I install a program I don't even know the name of the executable file to run that program (even to use locate). Most of the time I end up guessing a few times before I hit upon the correct executable name.

So the only thing to do is: before you install any packages in Linux check the list of files that will be installed on your system and note down where they will be copied to. It's a bit primitive but then it'll save you a lot of frantic searching later.

I understand that no system is perfect and I use locate all the time but I mean for newbies. It took me a long time to understand how to use the terminal and locate.

Boffy

The Linux file structure is fine. It doesn't need to be changed.

If Mandrake or any other major distribution were to change its file structure, programs designed to compile on a normal Linux system (i.e. 100% of them) would need to be re-programmed to work with a new structure, and programs designed for the new structure won't compile on other distros. We don't need distros to begin breaking standards.

I initially found the structure intimidating (coming to Linux after being a long time doze user), and now I prefer it over doze. Perhaps you would appreciate the structure more if you understand it:

http://www.pathname.com/fhs/

and don't forget the when compiling from source, one can "ALWAYS"
specify exactly where a program gets installed to !!!

I don't have any major objections personally to the system but it is intimidating and therefor another (needless) obstacle for all newbies to overcome.

Boffy

When studying the directory structure in linux you find that are reasons to all of the seemingly odd solutions.
The linux system inherits it's directory structure from the UNIX family, which very early was designed to be used in a network environment, in opposite to windows who discovered the consept of netowrking very late in history.

The directories are among other things designed with the possibilty to start a minimal linux system and later during the boot process mount the remaining directories and programs from a central server. This gives the benefit of centrally installed programs that are adminstred at a central server, a function implemented in wondows first decades later.

Don't take offense. I only have discovered that the linux environment are very well considered before things where made/coded.

It's a technical and Linux-related thread, so I think it fits better to Linux-General.

Wow I've never had a post moved out of the general forum only into it. Thanks Anyway sorry for the mistake.

Boffy