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.
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
meh. folder is 2 syllables, directory is like 4. I'm lazy. If someone gave me a clear one syllable alternative that others would know what I meant (even if while cringing), i'd probably start using that instead. I've tried just "dir", but no one ever knows wtf i'm saying.
Yep, while this meme is funny and in jest. If someone actually seriously gave me shit for saying "folder" or "directory" I would have to ask them what Stallman's toe nails actually taste like. Because that is up there with his level of being rigid about something that I just can't stand.
While conversing with Linux users, they should know what dir means... I mean, even if they don't use the terminal that often, dir is often used in GUIs as well in Linux.
I might should clarify that when using "dir" verbally no one knows what I'm saying, but maybe how I pronounce it in my head isn't how everyone else does, lol. In text it's plenty clear, imo.
Idk about hierarchy but PATH is a thing and the proper terminology is filepath, so the word path becomes ambiguated as it could be used to refer to either. Hence why I say it is bad practice to use it as a primary reference in conversation. Otherwise you'll get interns and users modifying their PATH for no damn reason and wondering why nothing works.
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'.
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)
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.
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.
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.
