Ask HN: What are problems only Windows, macOS, or Linux has?

Re:Ask HN: What are problems only Windows, macOS, or Linux has? by bediger4000 on Friday May 17, 2024 @11:56PM (#40396349)

A problem only Windows has: multirooted filesystems, the infamous and awful "drive letters". When was the last time you swapped out a floppy? Can't remember myself, but we've still got drive letters.

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Re:Ask HN: What are problems only Windows, macOS, or Linux has? by dehrmann on Saturday May 18, 2024 @12:42AM (#40396491)

I can imagine youngins asking why the first drive is c:

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Re:Ask HN: What are problems only Windows, macOS, or Linux has? by rezaprima on Saturday May 18, 2024 @12:59AM (#40396542)

when was the last time you unplugged your thumb drive?

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Re:Ask HN: What are problems only Windows, macOS, or Linux has? by bediger4000 on Saturday May 18, 2024 @01:36PM (#40400551)

Last month, I guess. I still have and use thumb drives periodically, but I don't believe I can lay hands on a floppy of any size.

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Re:Ask HN: What are problems only Windows, macOS, or Linux has? by pjmlp on Saturday May 18, 2024 @02:27AM (#40396866)

Only UNIX based OSes have a single hierarchical filesystem with mount points.

Windows did not choose that approach only to be diferent, rather that is what everyone else outside Bell Labs was doing.

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Re:Ask HN: What are problems only Windows, macOS, or Linux has? by euroderf on Saturday May 18, 2024 @12:59PM (#40400340)

I'll chalk that up as a win for the New Jersey camp.

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Re:Ask HN: What are problems only Windows, macOS, or Linux has? by pjmlp on Sunday May 19, 2024 @02:04AM (#40404580)

Coupled with how to make ideas stick when free beer is available.

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Re:Ask HN: What are problems only Windows, macOS, or Linux has? by bediger4000 on Saturday May 18, 2024 @01:34PM (#40400535)

No. Thompson and Ritchie borrowed that from Multics, see section 2.2 of https://multicians.org/fjcc4.html

My guess would be Microsoft inherited device rooted filesystems from CP/M.

They could have transitioned to single root filesystems with NT in the early 1990s.

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Re:Ask HN: What are problems only Windows, macOS, or Linux has? by pjmlp on Sunday May 19, 2024 @02:02AM (#40404573)

There are plenty of other OSes since the 1950's, even if the idea already existed in Multics, and the large majority of those weren't into single file system camp.

There are even those whose filesystem is based on a database model instead.

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Re:Ask HN: What are problems only Windows, macOS, or Linux has? by RGamma on Saturday May 18, 2024 @05:10AM (#40397547)

FWIW Windows supports mount points as well: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_volume_mount_point

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