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Linux/Mac/Windows File Name Friction

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the like-doing-it-with-sandpaper dept.

lessthan0 writes "In 1995, Microsoft added long file name support to Windows, allowing more descriptive names than the limited 8.3 DOS format. Mac users scoffed, having had long file names for a decade and because Windows still stored a DOS file name in the background. Linux was born with long file name support four years before it showed up in Windows. Today, long file names are well supported by all three operating systems though key differences remain. "

3 of 638 comments (clear)

  1. Does someone have a problem or two? by Richard_at_work · · Score: -1, Troll

    Is this anything other than an attempt to dis Windows for no other reason than 'Because'?

  2. Who gives a shit that linux supports long names by Clockwurk · · Score: -1, Troll

    when all the folders are 3 letter abbreviations and are found in multiple places. On windows, well behaved programs go in the aptly named "Program Files"; on OSX they go in "Applications"; on linux they go in /usr/bin or is it /bin or is it /local/bin or /wtf.

    At least windows supports long enough file names to call their help files "help" and not "man".

  3. WRONG. I spy a switcher! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Mac filenames could be 255 chars, but at some revision of Finder (forget which), they limited things to 31 characters as a practical limit. The underlying system remained capable.
    switcher \'swi`ch &r\, n.
    A person who thinks that they are a Mac user but are really just trying to be. The mistake they make is to try to become a Mac user, when real Mac users are all about not trying to be anything and following your own rules. There is no fashion code to being a Mac user. There are no rules as to what applications you have to run.

    Recent converts like you are ruining the old school Mac community because you are posers. Apple releases one OS that popularizes Fitts' law and the Genie effect, and suddenly people assume being a Mac user is all about owning a Mac. But a real Mac user is born, not made. You "switchers" are misrepresenting yourselves and the Mac platform. You're giving people the wrong idea of what Macintosh is.

    switcher: shops at hot topic, thinks Firefox is a good Mac app, waiting for OS X port of PayrollPro 2000, follows any hint of a fashion trend (instead of setting them!), wouldn't know Clarus from Carl Sagan.

    real Mac user: someone true to who they are, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world.