Softlinks aren't just a different version of hardlinks, they have totally separate semantics. Hardlinks allow you to link multiple files without worrying if the

Softlinks aren't just a different version of hardlinks, they have totally separate semantics. Hardlinks allow you to link multiple files without worrying if the original is destroyed, softlinks link to a file location. Take backups for example, I can have versioned backups and hardlink identical files to a previous version. The advantage of hardlinks is that I can treat the backups as fully independent, and use them with any program. If I were to use softlinks, or even deltas, I would need to use the original software to delete, or even extract the contents. With hardlinks, I can delete and copy the backups with any application. (Rsync and time machine actually implement this mechanism).