Jokes on them, I’ve been a windows guy so long they have always been directories; I started in the dos days.
More or less same, but I’ve gotten in the habit of saying “folder” to the younger crowd (at work) to be understood, and now they’ve become interchangeable, so I will switch back and forth in the same breath, confusing them even further…
I honestly like folders better. It’s one of the few good things from windows.
Files are in folders. That makes so much sense.
Not any more. I had a student not that long ago ask about the metaphor, ended up having to explain to the whole class what physical files and folders were.
I don’t wanna be that guy but are these kids becoming really dumb? When I was a kid or teen I still knew about things that were in at least 2 3 decades before me, I even knew how to use them. And files and folders are by no means things of the past! We all still use them regularly. Especially in school/office environments.
I don’t know how to explain it but I feel like the new generation are so disconnected from the real world and live in a bubble, their domain and depth of knowledge is really bad.
Yeah directory would make more sense if we’re talking about something that contains phone numbers.
I guess it makes sense to call /proc a directory, but the things under /home? I interact with a lot of that stuff with a file manager and there’s folder icons on them, so…
It’s because it’s a directory. It’s a list of locations for files.
In Windows the command “dir” is used instead of “ls”
Yeah a directory … that thing we need ldap for, right?
It’s a list of locations of files.
It doesn’t tell me which sector of the hard disk the file data is stored when I type “ls”. it lists the files within the container in the path provided in the command line or aprovided by an environment variable or whatever. What should we call something that contains files?
In Windows the command “dir” is used instead of “ls”
Yeah they were called directories in DOS.
The icon is a folder in both Windows and in every Linux desktop environment I’ve seen. It’s not that it’s incorrect to call them directories. It’s just that it’s not wrong to call them folders.
Most file managers on Linux, like GNOME or KDE have the option “New Folder”. It’s fine to use them interchangeably, y’all.
imo, directory refers to the filesystem concept, folder refers to the UI concept
Yeah, but if the UI refers to the same file system’s directories also as folders, why do people get so bent out of shape when you call them either?
Everyone’s gotta have a hobby.
I Used to be like this but now I disagree. I intentionally use “folders” instead of Linux directories or gitlab groups.
Folders are distinct and meaningful, while directories and groups have multiple meanings not clear without context.
wait, windows uses folder?
i’ve been saying directory since DOS. CD means Change Directory.
Also dir to list director contents
Dont windows also have a rmdir
I dont know if there are any commands with folder ? Maybe it was a marketing stunt somewhere along the way
Oh I’ll stunt bill gates’s marketing.
The Windows GUI (Explorer) has been using the word “folder” since Windows 95. DOS and Windows before that uses the word “directory”.
In KDE, when right-click menu gives you an option for a new “folder”. I will call it a folder.
The Xfce file manager, Thunar (4.18 with en-US as language), also has “Create Folder…” under the File menu, and in some contexts in the right-click menu.
Under Preferences, Behavior, it has both “directory” and “folders”.
man lsuses “directory” only tho, and of coursemkdir.Thunar also calls them folders in the properties window.
And most Linux icon themes visually represent them with a file cabinet folder image…
I say ‘drawer’ 😏
Directory is four syllables. Folder is two. Shorter wins.
linux users when they walk into a room:
ls
windows users when they walk into a room
DIR
cdlslsWhat was I doing again?
lslsdYou start tripping out
I guess most Windows users don’t know what DIR is or even where to use it.
“Do you use DIR?”
User: “Do I use what? And don’t call me dear.”Opening a folder in Explorer automatically shows the contents, saving the need for an extra step.
Here is a container of DIR.
Which is called a pen! Hmmm.
dir/w/p dude
i ain’t read fast enough to use dir. and i ain’t use a vertical monitor with my CLI
I feel this deep. Coming around full circle over the past 30-odd years.
Cutting my teeth mucking around and learning DOS 5 with friends on my families first PC, they were directories. Migrating to a support career where everything is stored in folders and now coming out the other side abandoning windows altogether and I’m back to calling everything directories again!
Yep and don’t get me started on object storage where everything is a prefix
Speak for yourself; for me everything is a path now ^^
all paths lead to gnome
When you call it the windows key
I bought tux stickers to stick them onto the windows icon of my keyboard. However it is a lighted one. So you had tux on top and in a red light the windows icon shined through. It was even more cursed that way.
Microsoft is the one that forced manufacturers to add it, or they couldn’t advertise their keyboard as being “Designed for Windows 95”, as it is required for the shortcuts (e.g win + d shows the desktop). The “Menu” key was added at the same time so that the Win 95 UI could be navigated without a mouse.
Now they are going the same with the CoPilot key. And poorly - Windows keys send keycode 0x5B and 0x5C. Menu sends 0x5D.
The CoPilot key? Left Shift + Windows + F23, obviously.What? You expect me to use “Super” out there in the wild and not look crazy?
There’s another name for the windows key?
Super or Meta is and Mac calls it command key
meta is the alt key (option on Macs)
I fairly sure I’ve seen various *nix tools call it super, meta, and hyper. I think super is the most correct but I’ve seen all three
i call it the “fuck your game” key
Super and Meta refer to two different keys from olden times that no longer appear on mainstream keyboards. So they are emulated using a convenient proxy.
It’s most common on Gnome to use the Windows key for Super, while Meta is set by user preference, often to Left Alt.
Super and Meta have different functions and are not interchangeable, though two given users may map the windows key to one or other.
If I’m dealing with text, it’s a directory. If I’m clicking around, it’s a folder.
I use either term. “Directory” is a weird term honestly. I accept it and use it often, but folder finds does make more sense honestly.
Yes, a directory is a list of items. Like a telephone directory. A folder is a container of items.
In 2009 I added Folder to the Wikipedia page Directory (computing) Explaining the Folder Metaphor in both English and German (Verzeichnis/Ordner). My clarification has been tweaked and altered slightly to bring it into line with Wikipedia standards, but it has stood the test of time.
I always use the term folder in Linux circles when referring to a container of things. It’s useful to stress the importance of the user interface, which is often misunderstood by many there. Be proud!
Firstly, thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia. And yeah those are the two ways I’ve thought of those terms. What’s weird to me is that saying “directory” to refer to the containing object does sound like you’re referring to just the listing itself, as you said, which is ever-changing metadata and to my knowledge that is not stored in/on the folder itself, it would be in the …whatever equivalent of file allocation tables are now. But, since so many people say directory I’ve learned to use it interchangeably with folder. Directory feels more technical and somehow more closely attached to the concept of a path. I dunno, words are weird!
We got ourselves a celebrity, I’m going to call you Hollywood
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Folder is better. On disk, a folder is a list of pairs of a name and number, mapping the items in the folder to their location on the disk i.e. it’s a directory. The days before computerization are before my time, but, as I understand it, library index cards worked this way. You might have a card for each author which listed the books by that author with the location of the index card on that book, and you might have directory cards on subjects or keywords too, and the card on a book might point to the location of the book on the shelf and the card for the author, etc., or something like that. It would be most confusing to call these directory cards “folders”. The computer does the same thing internally, but the user interface has hidden away any notion of directory. They’re logically folders. It’s only a directory if you’re writing a file system implementation.
Interesting. Thanks for that explanation!
As an old person who started on MS-DOS, I’ve always said “directory”, and “program”. I had trouble switching to “folder” and then more recently “app”. I’m happy to have switched to Linux a couple of years ago so I can just say directory again. The word app, short for application, came from Apple, with the iPhone. No doubt they also liked that is the first three letters of Apple, too. It was specifically for the little programs that ran on iPhone, not meant to replace “program” across the board. But, here we are. Also, “web app” was used to refer to those websites or pages that worked like apps on iPhones, before apps became commonplace. Now, everything from Notes to Photoshop is an “app”.
i have looked in the oxford english dictionary, which magically sprang into existence in 1991, and the word application did not exist before apple. COINCIDENCE I THINK SO
I pronounce “folder” the same way I pronounce “solder”, cuz I’m just badass that way.
They have different pronouciations? I mean they differ very little in the 1st vowel, but it’s almost indistinguishable to my brain.
Wait, how else do you pronounce it?
I’m an American, let me help. It’s pronounced saw-dur.
Americans say solder as sorder for some reason.
I have also heard it as Sodder, especially when they say ‘soddering iron’. Makes my eye twitch
Folder rhymes with solder the way solder rhymes with smolder.
Getting colder.
