Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1030229AbVJEQgk (ORCPT ); Wed, 5 Oct 2005 12:36:40 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1030231AbVJEQgk (ORCPT ); Wed, 5 Oct 2005 12:36:40 -0400 Received: from mail-par.bigfish.com ([217.117.146.230]:64973 "EHLO mail11-par-R.bigfish.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1030229AbVJEQgi (ORCPT ); Wed, 5 Oct 2005 12:36:38 -0400 X-BigFish: V Message-ID: <43440105.9020104@am.sony.com> Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2005 09:36:21 -0700 From: Tim Bird User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (X11/20041206) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Nikita Danilov CC: Marc Perkel , Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: what's next for the linux kernel? References: <20051002204703.GG6290@lkcl.net> <4342DC4D.8090908@perkel.com> <200510050122.39307.dhazelton@enter.net> <4343694F.5000709@perkel.com> <17219.39868.493728.141642@gargle.gargle.HOWL> In-Reply-To: <17219.39868.493728.141642@gargle.gargle.HOWL> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1883 Lines: 51 Nikita Danilov wrote: > Marc Perkel writes: > > [...] > > > Right - that's Unix "inside the box" thinking. The idea is to make the > > operating system smarter so that the user doesn't have to deal with > > what's computer friendly - but reather what makes sense to the user. > > From a user's perspective if you have not rights to access a file then > > why should you be allowed to delete it? > > Because in Unix a name is not an attribute of a file. > > Files are objects that you read, write and truncate. They are > represented by inodes. > > Separately from that, there is an indexing structure: directory > tree. Directories map symbolical names to inodes. Obviously, adding a > reference to an index, or removing it from one requires access > permission to the _index_ rather then to the object being referenced. > > That two-level model of files and indexing on top of them is essential > to Unix due to the flexibility and conceptual economy it provides. > We should print that on post-it notes for grandmothers to read when they are interacting with Unix file systems. > > > > So - the thread is about the future so I say - time to fix Unix. > > One thing is clear: it's too late to fix Netware. Why should Unix > emulate its lethal defects? Like NetWare's defect of it being intuitive and easy to administer file system rights? Hey, here's a thought. Maybe the operating system could actually exist to SERVE the human instead of vice versa. -- Tim ============================= Tim Bird Architecture Group Chair, CE Linux Forum Senior Staff Engineer, Sony Electronics ============================= - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/