Fedora Aims To Simplify Linux Filesystem

jfruhlinger writes "Even Linux's most passionate partisans will admit that its filesystem, which stashes vital files in a variety of arcane directories, can be baffling to users. The developers at the Fedora project want to cut the Gordian knot and consolidate all executables into /usr/bin and all libraries into /usr/lib or /usr/lib64. One downside: this system would conflict with the standards developed by the Linux Standard Base, or the (rarely used) Filesystem Hierarchy Standard."

Re:When do we get compression?

[royallthefourth]

Make the directories you want compressed into mountpoints on the compressed partition.

/bin, /sbin had their functions

[l2718]

I think it's important to realize why the four directions /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin exist (and similarly why /lib is separate from /usr/lib). The reason is that once upon a time discs were small, so that /usr would be mounted separately from the root partition. So /bin and /lib are small directories containing as much of the operating system as you need to get going before you mount /usr and get everything else. In particular, this means the utilities needed to mount those other filesystems and to fix errors in them (e.g. fsck). The separation between /usr/bin and /usr/sbin means that ordinary users don't have system programs (those from /sbin) in their search path. Today most installations have the whole system (/ and /usr) on the same partition and it seems that many users use a GUI rather than a terminal. This means that the separation is not needed. Note that this change is not about multiple-architecture situations like /usr/lib and /usr/lib64. It's about the separation between /lib and /usr/lib (or /lib64 and /usr/lib64).

Re:When do we get compression?

[dmitrygr]

wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong just tried it. NTFS FS, 2GB free, file on there 30GB full size, compressed to 15GB. opens juts fine even though there isn't 30GB free there. also opens instantly (does NOT decompress 30GB anywhere)

GOBO Linux

[pentalive]

http://www.gobolinux.org/ [gobolinux.org] Combines executables and necessary libraries each in their own directory under '/programs' Uses links to show files in traditional places.