• Cipher22@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I typically call them folders when going through the GUI and directories when using CLI.

    • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I never realized I subconsciously did this until your pointing it out. Huh. Thanks for that insight I suppose, haha

      • Kaity@leminal.space
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        4 months ago

        well it sorta just makes sense, the gui presents it as a folder, you can move things around in it like a folder, conceptually it presents them in a way to make you think they are physical things stored in a physical folder/box. cli it really just feels like you are using a string of characters indicating the desired file, it feels more like a directory that way, even if it always really is that way, just showcased differently in the gui.

        brain doing brainy things, strings/lines vs pictures/labels

    • lefixxx@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      To move a folder (gui), you just do it. To move a directory (cli) you have to implicitly say you want the contents too.

  • takeheart@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    So what’s the difference?

    My intuition is that directory is the older term and refers to something existing on the file system while folder can be that but also includes “virtual folders” that group together different files from across the file system like when photo manager shows you categories like ‘recently viewed’ or ‘taken in 2023’.

    • femboy_bird@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 months ago

      Uhhh directories are files where other files are stored in a computer, folders are pieces of paper used to store pieces of paper (or a file used to store another files in a computer)

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Directory is the older term, but when they started making computers user friendly they needed a friendlier word for it. Folders make sense because people understand putting files in folders in real life.

      • takeheart@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Aha, to me it’s an apt metaphors as files go into folders and it fits with the whole desktop analogy.

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Exactly, except like all computer metaphors they break down when you get into the details. I can’t put a document in more than one folder and update them at the same time IRL like I can do with a symlink.

          • takeheart@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            You bring up a pretty good point. Whenever I have a personal document that could go into multiple categories (eg a travel insurance certificate can go into travel, insurance, or finance folder) I place it in all 3 at once with hard links. What’s more is that if I intuitively first search for a document in place A but it’s actually in place B I simply place a link in A for the next time.

            Before I learned a bit about file systems I didn’t even conceive of such a thing being possible; precisely because the folder metaphor had imprinted upon me the physical world constraint that things can only be in a single place at once.

  • r00ty@kbin.life
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    4 months ago

    I mix and match. I used to have an Amiga back in the day, and they were called directories there. As such, most of my parlance is from those days. But most of my work life has been on Windows. So, folder has sneaked into everyday usage.

  • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I have been switching a number of computers over to Linux over the last few months in preparation for the end of Windows 10. But honestly shit like this that makes me think, maybe Windows 11 isn’t so bad?

    • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 months ago

      Have you ever actually seen someone care about that particular choice of terminology, without being sarcastic trying to be funny?

            • optional@feddit.de
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              4 months ago

              TBF, most of the time (with a small exception for the period from 2006 to 2020ish) it would have been wrong to call a Mac a PC, as PC (and PC compatible) is the name of a specific platform based on the 8086 and compatible processors with a specific BIOS and a specific IO-interfaces. And Mac’s most of the time are not PC compatible. And I’ve never heard anyone say, that a MacBook is not a laptop.

              • cobysev@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                As an IT guy in the early 2000s, it was really annoying to see all the “Mac vs. PC” arguments. PC stands for Personal Computer - a Mac is literally a PC! When I was a kid in the '80s-'90s, my schools all used Apple IIe computers (and later versions of Apple products as I got older), but they always called them PCs.

                But those Apple ads convincing people to ditch the frumpy old guy PC for the young, hot Mac guy did their job, and pop culture decided that a Mac wasn’t a PC.

                • optional@feddit.de
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                  4 months ago

                  PC stands for Personal Computer, but that doesn’t mean that every personal computer is a PC. Just as VW stands for Volkswagen but not every wagon used by folks is a VW.

                  Calling any personal computer PC would cause all sorts of confusion, as PCs are able to run specific pieces of software (which were literally marketed as »PC 3,5"«, »PC CD ROM« or something of the like) such as »PC (or MS) DOS«, Windows etc. It would have been pretty annoying if someone sold you a game, telling you that it runs on PCs, leaving it to you to guess which kind of personal computer they meant: Atari ST, Apple II, C64, or IBM PC. All of them are personal computers, but only the PC is a PC.

                  Btw, all that was set in stone already in the 1980s and 1990, decades before Apple launched the Mac Vs. PC campaign in 2006. If your teacher called an Apple IIe PC, he was wrong about that, even before it was cool.

            • accideath@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              I mean, calling them Mac(Book) does clarify that they run macOS. And historically „Mac and PC“ have been used to differentiate between Windows and macOS, not just by Mac users. Never met anyone who persisted on MacBooks not being laptops. People just call them MacBooks because that’s what they are…

    • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Tired of users’ elitism? Get some corporate elitism instead!

      What’s wrong babe? We’ve just moved your taskbar, created one another directories for program files and documents, and renamed This Computer to Our Computer. It’s not a big deal!

  • Null User Object@programming.dev
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    4 months ago

    Been using Linux as my primary OS for (counts on fingers)… decades now. Called them folders the whole time. Never had a problem with it. Nobody who matters cares.

  • SomeBoyo@feddit.de
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    4 months ago

    it’s directory, if you refer to it in a cli context and folder if you refer to it in a gui context