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Ubuntu Will Switch To Base-10 File Size Units In Future Release

CyberDragon777 writes "Ubuntu's future 10.10 operating system is going to make a small, but contentious change to how file sizes are represented. Like most other operating systems using binary prefixes, Ubuntu currently represents 1 kB (kilobyte) as 1024 bytes (base-2). But starting with 10.10, a switch to SI prefixes (base-10) will denote 1 kB as 1000 bytes, 1 MB as 1000 kB, 1 GB as 1000 MB, and so on."

8 of 984 comments (clear)

  1. Why? by alexandre · · Score: 1, Troll

    Why?
    To excuse hard drive makers for using this stupid format to grown their number artificially?
    Hopefully this doesn't affect the command line... only gnome, right?

  2. Cannonical is fixing things by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 0, Troll

    1kb was 1024 byte. it was misdefined like that.

    FTFY.
    Or do you also think that the prefix milli- should mean 1/1024 instead of 1/1000? [/sarcasm]

    The k prefix, as an abbreviation for kilo-, was defined as meaning 1000 long before it was improperly hijacked into the recent computerese misdefinition. That's why kN means 1000 newtons, kPa means 1000 pascals, kg means 1000 grams, and so forth. The definitions for mega- and giga- were also standardized as powers of 1000 long before computers existed. The IEC prefixes kibi-, mebi, gibi-, and their respective abbreviations Ki, Mi, Gi have been defined to cater to the powers of 1024. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix Ubuntu is merely making itself consistent with international standards; it's long overdue for computerese in general, too.

    --
    Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
  3. Re:Just use the right prefix by koreaman · · Score: 0, Troll

    Were you born this retarded, or did you play with leaden Chinese toys as a child?

  4. Re:Cannonical is just trolling us by l3v1 · · Score: 1, Troll

    The "binary" prefixes have always been problematic and don't help new people entering the field to understand anything

    This argument is outrageously ignorant. Everyone entering a field is expected to learn the field's nomenclature, de facto and de jure standards, and everything related.

    The ones always having been making a fuss of this issue were the non-professionals, let me put it another way, people who after buying ocmputers became affordable bought them and thought that buying a PC makes them all-knowing.

    This whole kibi/kilo mebi/mega etc. stupidity just doesn't seem to stop. There are too many idiots behind its enforcement. So the thing is, we have to live with it, and there's not much we can do.

    But, at least, I can choose to use an OS that doesn't rub it in my face. So Ubuntu, burn.

    --
    I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
  5. Re:Cannonical is just trolling us by darkpixel2k · · Score: 0, Troll

    "Gay names"

    You just lost the war dude. Now shut up, crawl back into your cave the the rest of your hate filled, foul mouthed crew.

    Stonewolf

    Right--because when I say 'Gay names', I'm talking in super-secret code that really means 'I hate men who like other men'.

    I was raised back when, 'gay' meant you thought something was lame (because my parents were raised to think 'gay' meant 'happy'), and 'fag' was a cigarette.

    So let me re-write my post for retards like you:
    Using gay lame names like mebi instead of mega.

    Happy now? Or should I say gay now?

    --
    There's no place like ::1 (I've completed my transition to IPv6)
  6. Re:Cannonical is just trolling us by bruce_the_loon · · Score: 1, Troll

    PETA is already full of dykes.....

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    Trying to become famous by taking photos. Visit my homepage please.
  7. Re:Cannonical is just trolling us by darkpixel2k · · Score: 0, Troll

    Nope, not at all. As you documented so well the words have changed meaning over time. You also documented the fact the you know what they mean now. That means you knowingly used hate speech.

    I don't think you know what hate speech is.

    My guess is that you use habitually without ever thinking about it. Until someone does make you think about it you will keep doing.

    Well--now I've thought about it. I still don't care.

    My mother used the famous "N" word to described anyone with a dark complexion. Sometimes she would stick the words "red" or "yellow" in front of them to describe other people. One of here favorite wild flowers "N" heads and Brazil nuts can in bags labeled as "N" toes.

    Fag used to mean a cigarette--and it still does in a lot of places in Europe. Faggot used to mean a bundle of sticks. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the N word didn't ever mean anything other than a racial slur.

    Keep spewing your unthinking hatred. You think people will just stand still for it forever?

    Thanks judge, jury, and executioner. Apparently you think I'm using hate speech for saying that SI prefixes sound gay.

    Eventually you will say the wrong thing in the wrong place and find out that you can not.

    Stonewolf

    Typical socialist. Threaten someone who says something you don't like.

    Feel free to say anything you want around me--I'm not going to react with violence.

    My mom also taught me a certain saying when I was young: 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.'

    So chill out. I don't care what you and your boyfriend do in the privacy of your own home. It's none of my business, and it's not the business of the government.
    Next time someone says 'That sounds gay' or 'This is totally gay', they are probably just expressing that they dislike a situation. (Unless of course they are actually in the act of sticking their penis where another man evacuates his bowels--then they may actually be using the word to describe one or more men who prefer male-on-male action).

    --
    There's no place like ::1 (I've completed my transition to IPv6)
  8. Re:Cannonical is just trolling us by visualight · · Score: 0, Troll

    You're wrong. Gay does not mean homosexual. Homosexual means homosexual.

    Fifty years ago some retards _appropriated_ the word gay and made it mean something else. Fine.

    Well, _twenty_ years ago _my_ generation appropriated it again, and for twenty years the word gay has meant:

    "Something is broken, lame, or does not work as intented or advertised."

    So quit it with your knee jerk political correctness, it's fucking gay.

    --
    Samsung took back my unlocked bootloader because Google wants me to rent movies. They're both evil.