11 ms·

That's interesting... The PC equivalent is thumbs.db, which can be disabled through a simple OS option. One of those rare occasions where a PC is actually more

That's interesting... The PC equivalent is thumbs.db, which can be disabled through a simple OS option. One of those rare occasions where a PC is actually more user-friendly than a Mac. Oh wait, did I just open Pandora's box?

freyrs3 15y ago
Since Linux has no such construct by default. Does that make it the most user-friendly?
- wpnx 15y ago
  no
- jacobr 15y ago
  KDE's Dolphin creates annoying .directory files.
  - pferde 15y ago
    I found Krusader to be superior to Dolphin, but that's perhaps I'm used to old two-pane way of file management (Midnight Commander, Norton/Volkov Commander, Windows Commander)
- keeperofdakeys 15y ago
  Many programs do something similar, for example vim creates file~ as backups. Using a graphical file manager, these used to annoy me. After switching to a terminal for file management, I can easily ignore them as if they weren't there.
  - wollw 15y ago
    What I ended up doing was having vim save backups and temp files to ~/.vim/backup and ~/.vim/tmp by adding this to my .vimrc: set backupdir=~/.vim/backup set directory=~/.vim/tmp Of course these can also be relative paths so you can have a project save these to a local .backup directory too if you want to keep them near the files they relate to.
RKearney 15y ago
I think desktop.ini is more like .DS_Store than thumbs.db is.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- divtxt 15y ago
  Thumbs.db is the correct comparison in this case because we're talking about behavior i.e an unwanted file that is silently added and propogates. desktop.ini is closer from a functionality point of view, but in practice I see much less of it compared to Thumbs.db.
seanp2k2 15y ago
Windows has always had more configuration than OSX. OSX - supposed to be simple to use and the defaults are supposed to "just work" and make sense to most people (drag an "icon" to the "trash" to "uninstall" it made no sense to me) Linux (old-school) - made for users who care about the details and will take days or weeks to set up their system. Arch is still like this. Stuff adheres to philosophical standards and POSIX. Linux (new-school) - trying to be like OSX with the "sane defaults; just works in most cases" but also tweak-able as much or as little as you like. Fedora 16 is my current weapon of choice for work/dev. Windows - the "bloated swiss army knife". It's trying to have the "sane defaults" of OSX with the configurability of Linux, but the architecture is all stupid and you get error codes in hexidecimal that say "an unknown error has occurred!". Going back to Windows after OSX or Linux is pretty awful, honestly. Really the only thing it has going for it would be "it's popular", so it's likely that someone else also had error 0x8BADF00D and knew how to fix it. Hating aside, Windows being not open-source really hurts when you're trying to fix/debug something -- you can tail the error logs until the cows come home, but unless you're a Microsoft developer, it'll probably be pretty opaque (OSX is sometimes bad about this too -- ever have fun with KEXT bingo?) The solution, obviously, is to just have a damn cache of these somewhere ELSE on the system (but not the registry, because the registry was one of the worst software ideas OF ALL TIME. What other critical system database lets anything write to anywhere at any time? Smart, guys, smart...)
- botker 15y ago
  You hit the nail on the head. As an Arch user, I find pleasure in configuring a clean system, and indeed I've been continually doing it for years. Since it's natural behavior for me, I find it all too easy to forget that most people, including the technically inclined, consider such constant tweaking to be undesirable. So as much as I want to say, "Folks, stop using Apple products -- for their SOPA support, for .DS_Store, for being un-Unixy, for an endless list of other reasons", I have to recognize that my values as a computer user are completely out-of-line with the people who find Apple's selling points to be attractive. The OP, however, sounds like he may be ready for a Linux or BSD.
- jodrellblank 15y ago
  You must be thinking of the Linux fantasists registry, not the real one, as the real registry has Windows ACLs and users can only write to HKCU by default, admin rights are needed to write to HKLM or HKCR. And "one of the worst ideas of all time" provided a system-wide centralised, standardised configuration database accessible from vbscript and command line, as well as app code, with user specific settings migratable between computers, values configurable by group policy from a central company wide location with MS supplied or customisable templates. A huge improvement on the previous .ini files and something still unmatched in the Mac or Linux worlds with config in arbitrary locations and formats (which, incidentally, let anyone write anything anywhere in a similar fashion).
divtxt 15y ago
It's not opening up a Pandora's box to say that Windows is more user-friendly than a Mac in some aspects, and anyway you're using the phrase "rare occasion". Having said that, your example is bad because: - your "simple os option" is hidden in an advanced administrative tool called "Local Group Policy Tool" (or previously Registry) - OS X has the same disable .DS_Store option hidden in a similar administrative interface (Terminal + defaults write ...)
mellifluousmind 15y ago
Wait, there is a config setting for thumbs.db? Care to share the location? How do I disable it?
- shrikant 15y ago
  Not on a windows box right now, so might be slightly off, but iirc, this should be: Control panel > Folder options > Advanced tab > there should be an option called "disable caching thumbnails" or some such.
g3orge 15y ago
yeah. Apple doesn't like these kind of system options.

freyrs3 15y ago

Since Linux has no such construct by default. Does that make it the most user-friendly?

wpnx 15y ago
no
jacobr 15y ago
KDE's Dolphin creates annoying .directory files.
- pferde 15y ago
  I found Krusader to be superior to Dolphin, but that's perhaps I'm used to old two-pane way of file management (Midnight Commander, Norton/Volkov Commander, Windows Commander)
keeperofdakeys 15y ago
Many programs do something similar, for example vim creates file~ as backups. Using a graphical file manager, these used to annoy me. After switching to a terminal for file management, I can easily ignore them as if they weren't there.
- wollw 15y ago
  What I ended up doing was having vim save backups and temp files to ~/.vim/backup and ~/.vim/tmp by adding this to my .vimrc: set backupdir=~/.vim/backup set directory=~/.vim/tmp Of course these can also be relative paths so you can have a project save these to a local .backup directory too if you want to keep them near the files they relate to.

RKearney 15y ago

I think desktop.ini is more like .DS_Store than thumbs.db is.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
divtxt 15y ago
Thumbs.db is the correct comparison in this case because we're talking about behavior i.e an unwanted file that is silently added and propogates. desktop.ini is closer from a functionality point of view, but in practice I see much less of it compared to Thumbs.db.

seanp2k2 15y ago

Windows has always had more configuration than OSX. OSX - supposed to be simple to use and the defaults are supposed to "just work" and make sense to most people (drag an "icon" to the "trash" to "uninstall" it made no sense to me) Linux (old-school) - made for users who care about the details and will take days or weeks to set up their system. Arch is still like this. Stuff adheres to philosophical standards and POSIX. Linux (new-school) - trying to be like OSX with the "sane defaults; just works in most cases" but also tweak-able as much or as little as you like. Fedora 16 is my current weapon of choice for work/dev. Windows - the "bloated swiss army knife". It's trying to have the "sane defaults" of OSX with the configurability of Linux, but the architecture is all stupid and you get error codes in hexidecimal that say "an unknown error has occurred!". Going back to Windows after OSX or Linux is pretty awful, honestly. Really the only thing it has going for it would be "it's popular", so it's likely that someone else also had error 0x8BADF00D and knew how to fix it. Hating aside, Windows being not open-source really hurts when you're trying to fix/debug something -- you can tail the error logs until the cows come home, but unless you're a Microsoft developer, it'll probably be pretty opaque (OSX is sometimes bad about this too -- ever have fun with KEXT bingo?) The solution, obviously, is to just have a damn cache of these somewhere ELSE on the system (but not the registry, because the registry was one of the worst software ideas OF ALL TIME. What other critical system database lets anything write to anywhere at any time? Smart, guys, smart...)

botker 15y ago
You hit the nail on the head. As an Arch user, I find pleasure in configuring a clean system, and indeed I've been continually doing it for years. Since it's natural behavior for me, I find it all too easy to forget that most people, including the technically inclined, consider such constant tweaking to be undesirable. So as much as I want to say, "Folks, stop using Apple products -- for their SOPA support, for .DS_Store, for being un-Unixy, for an endless list of other reasons", I have to recognize that my values as a computer user are completely out-of-line with the people who find Apple's selling points to be attractive. The OP, however, sounds like he may be ready for a Linux or BSD.
jodrellblank 15y ago
You must be thinking of the Linux fantasists registry, not the real one, as the real registry has Windows ACLs and users can only write to HKCU by default, admin rights are needed to write to HKLM or HKCR. And "one of the worst ideas of all time" provided a system-wide centralised, standardised configuration database accessible from vbscript and command line, as well as app code, with user specific settings migratable between computers, values configurable by group policy from a central company wide location with MS supplied or customisable templates. A huge improvement on the previous .ini files and something still unmatched in the Mac or Linux worlds with config in arbitrary locations and formats (which, incidentally, let anyone write anything anywhere in a similar fashion).

divtxt 15y ago

It's not opening up a Pandora's box to say that Windows is more user-friendly than a Mac in some aspects, and anyway you're using the phrase "rare occasion". Having said that, your example is bad because: - your "simple os option" is hidden in an advanced administrative tool called "Local Group Policy Tool" (or previously Registry) - OS X has the same disable .DS_Store option hidden in a similar administrative interface (Terminal + defaults write ...)

mellifluousmind 15y ago

Wait, there is a config setting for thumbs.db? Care to share the location? How do I disable it?

shrikant 15y ago
Not on a windows box right now, so might be slightly off, but iirc, this should be: Control panel > Folder options > Advanced tab > there should be an option called "disable caching thumbnails" or some such.

g3orge 15y ago

yeah. Apple doesn't like these kind of system options.