After kernel 2.6.20 newer kernel now call Pata disk the same device name convention as a SCSI, Sata or USB hard disk.

Thus depending on the number of hard disks and the ways they are connected the device names sda, sdb, sdc, sdd, sde, sdf etc are no longer unique.

Therefore Ubuntu started using the "by-uuid" convention for partitions while Suse opted for the "by-id" method. Users should not be discouraged by the change as sda, sdb, sdc etc are still supported and can be used. The by-uuid and by-id names are listed in the /dev/disk directory giving the equivalent in the normal Linux device names (like /dev/sda3). I change them whenever I see fit.

Red Hat family distro has for years been using the "by-label" convention so why single out the by-uuid or the by-id method.

The by-id, by-uuid and by label device names are unique and generated when a filing system is created in the partition. Their usage is to get over the problem associated with the above unified hard disk name change. As an example I have one IDE controller, 6 Sata ports, 4 USB ports and one eSata. Any one of them can be arranged to take the sad position.

Time will tell if such change can be accepted by the majority of the Linux users.

Here is an example of my Ubuntu's /dev/disk/by-uuid & by-id
On the Linux terminal editor vi I have this to say

vi is available in most Linux. It is a bit foreign to newcomers but hell in essence one only needs to know "x" to delete a character, "dd" to delete a line", "i" for insertion, "Esc" to stop insertion, ":w" to save and ":q" to quit.

Many distros supply nano which list the commands at the bottom screen.

In root console a user can also use the graphic editor in Gnome with "gedit <filename>" or in KDE with "kwrite <filename>".

Thus if one starts to use the system then things get easier with time.

Conclusion.
 

Linux has come a long way since I started using it (version 5.0). Now, it really can do everything that Microsoft Windows does, and much more of course. So, let us make it more friendly to install.

Finally, I would like to request developers to keep Linux an individual OS - that is, I don't want my Linux to look like Windoze!

I like the conclusion. I am all for improving Linux but do not let Linux look, or act, like Windows. With good improvements, more people will accept Linux as an alternative to other operating systems.



greencedar

Actually it's the other way around. That alphanumeric code is the permanent file system ID (UUID) which should never change, even if you are mounting the disk over the network to another machine. The old /dev/hda system was reliable in its identifications, but required a separate IDE driver. The modern SATA/PATA driver can handle any kind of storage media but calls everything sd*, whether it's actually a scsi drive or not. I remember that in the early days of this driver, disk ids were not constant but depended on the order in which the kernel noticed the disks, which could vary and could definitely screw up your /etc/fstab. That was why a lot of distros switched to using UUIDs instead. Nowadays, udev rules ensure persistent naming of drives and partitions, but the habit of using UUIDs in /etc/fstab seems to have stuck.