Get to the root of Ubuntu

While Windows remains by far the most popular operating system for home PCs, the number of people using or thinking of experimenting with an open source alternative is growing.

We’re going to take an in-depth look at installing and using a Linux-based system called Ubuntu in the near future; but here for those who are already using Ubuntu on a main or second PC, and to whet the appetite of those weighing up the idea, is an introduction to file management in this non-Windows world.

Ubuntu and Windows look fairly similar, but there are some significant differences in the way Linux handles files and folders and you’ll need to get the hang of this fairly early on.

The first thing to bear in mind is that there are no drive letters in Linux. Even if you have several hard disks or partitions, they do not appear like that when you navigate through them.

Instead, Linux shows a folder structure with a single root folder and many sub-folders. Even separate devices such as CD writers appear as sub-folders under the root.
Secondly, Linux is case-sensitive.

This can be disconcerting at first, especially as it conflicts with the Windows way of doing things. Just to be clear: you can have two files, one called ‘notes.txt’ and the other called ‘Notes.txt’, and Linux will consider them as different documents. This can cause problems if you try to copy both files to Windows, which is mostly case-insensitive.

Finally, it’s important to remember that Linux uses the forward slash (‘/’)to separate folders. Apart from this, any character is allowed in a file name, even things like back slashes and question marks. Again, this upsets Windows if you try to copy or view the files from there.