[CentOS] Multiple program instances or multiple log ins?

[Bryan J. Smith]

Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com> wrote:
> But HIDDEN???

Configuration files and directories in UNIX are almost
_always_ "dot files."  Files that begin with a dot are not
shown if you do a list subdirectory (ls) without the all (-a)
option.

The concept is that you might only want to show the
subdirectories _you_ created, not where some program stored
its configuration files.  You want those out-of-the-way.

In fact, the reference "hidden" is a more recent Window'ism! 
It's how the files are show in Samba, because Windows
provides a "hidden" attribute.  So that's how they show up.

Certain versions of the Windows Explorer will _not_ even let
you create a file or directory that begins with a dot. 
That's because it believes it is an "extension" and not a
file.

Again, I said it before and I will say it again, UNIX and
Windows are _radically_different_ beasts in many areas!  When
you say things like "But HIDDEN???" many of us UNIX users
roll our eyes.  Not because we think you are stupid or
anything, but because you have been "programmed" that things
are how they are in the Windows world.

> I have always kept my data organized by identity and have
> NEVER put anything in M$s pet directories.

That's because Microsoft's profile approaches are, and have
_always_ been, _severely_broken_!  The infighting and general
and quite gross ignorance of the NT team by the
single/home-user Chicago (95/98) team resulted in this.

But in the UNIX world, the use of the user's home directory
-- the $HOME variable or commonly tilde (~) or tilde-user
(~user) is pretty much an _absolute_.

E.g., I put the NFS export /export/engr/bjsmith in an
Automounter map that is shared by an NIS or Netscape
Directory Server (LDAP) and it gets mounted to
/home/engr/bjsmith on _every_ single workstation I log into. 
I now have _all_ of my configuration _everywhere_ I go.  I
might consider AFS or DFS and use caching as well (long, long
story).

Microsoft has tried to nail down roaming profiles for 12+
years, and they still haven't perfected it.  They've tried to
cache it local, or cache portions of it.  My personal
favorite was, and will continue to be, the first time MS
Internet Explorer was _forced_ into Windows NT 4.0.  I'd have
roaming profiles of 1+GB and it didn't matter how many times
I ran the Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK) tools
to move the temporary files outside of a user's roaming
profile, it would somehow get "reset" back in it.

> After I install an app, I change its data directory
settings.
> Been doing this since QUARTERDECK on 286s.

In UNIX, you want to _avoid_ doing that.  Why?  Because in
the UNIX world -- _everyone_ knows that user settings go in
the user's home directory.  Every single application assumes
it _only_ has write access to the user's home directory and
_no_ where else (except maybe /tmp).

That's something Microsoft itself still can't get their own
application division to do -- although the "\My Documents and
Settings" has finally caught on well enough.  But mounting
that across a network is still not as "absolute" as UNIX's
home directory.

> And I could mount shares for specific user info from other
> systems.

Yes.

> You left out OS/2 there (I gained the dubious title of one
> of the 5 junior blue ninjas.

No I didn't.  I just didn't want to go into it (although I
did on the Citrix follow-up).**

386Enhanced mode of "Chicago" (yes, 95/98/Me still use it) is
basically a bastardization of OS/2 running atop of Real Mode
DOS.

NT is a superset of OS/2, with some really stupid approaches
(like the GDI root of any WinForm application, including the
NT DOS Virtual Machine, NTVDM, which ran the DOS/DPMI as well
as the Win32 console).

> anyone here know who the blue ninja on compuserve was?).  I
> remember when Culter was hired away from DEC.  To make a
> 'real' file system.

Sigh.  I really don't want to get in these pissing contest. 
I know all about OS/2 and VMS and the Digital-Microsoft
alliance (Digital _always_ made the _only_ quality NT
applications), etc...

[ <resume=ON>I spent my college days as not only as the sole
Internet hostmaster/postmaster of a 15,000 employee
consulting engineering firm, but also it's sole OS/2 expert. 
I also had IBM and Digital MIPS systems running AIX and Ultra
and, later, Digital Alpha 21064[A] and 21164 running Windows
NT, Digital UNIX, OpenVMS and, of course, Linux.</resume> ]




-- 
Bryan J. Smith     Professional, Technical Annoyance                      b.j.smith at ieee.org      http://thebs413.blogspot.com
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*** Speed doesn't kill, difference in speed does ***