Quote Originally Posted by gowator

MS has you thinking of partitions as C,D,E etc. and network drives as M etc. (actually thats an old LAN manager convention)
So now your in a new world and seeking to understand by relating it back to the old. Sometimes this works but often it doesn't!!!
A network drive isn't really a drive, its a share. So you can do funny things like .....
M: = //serverx/shareX/users AND
N: = //serverx/shareX/users/hunkah

Linux (UNIX can do the same but it doesn't start off misleading you into thinking of them as 'drives')

There are two FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES between Winworld and NixWorld ... and these will confuse you. ITs like learning a different Windows is like say learning Italian if your native tongue is Spanish ...
Learning one NIX to another is like learning portuguese when your native tongue is Spanish

BUT learning NIX from Windows is like learning Chinese when your native tongue is English!! Its has some common features BUT the whole philosophy is different.

1st TIP: Windows is not network aware. Its basically a standalone OS you can plug into a network and then load some optional extra bits on top. But networking will never be fundamental to Windows; its always a bolt on accessory.
Think about something like PCANYWHERE.... it just doesn't exist on NIX becuase its not needed. Implicitly you can open a terminal, application window or even a whole desktop on ANY machine in the world.

say you have two machines in the same network with full permission on both: on alpha
export DISPLAY=bravo:0.0
xterm
Will, if you have permission open an xterm on bravo
this extends way beyond an xterm, it includes sound or partically anything.... (mount bravo://serverx/shareX/users/hunkah /home/hunkah)
thuis will mount a shared home directory on serverx into your HOME directory.

So remembering that linux is fully and always network aware helps you understand it.

This can be inverted too.
That is anything done on a remote machine can be done locally.
say your machine is called alpha.hunkah.com and has a web server running
http://alpha.hunkah.com in a brwser will open that web page.
BUT
http://localhost WILL do the same thing...

2nd TIP: Linux is multiuser ALWAYS!!!
Even if only you are logged in some tasks will be run as root and others will be run by nameless users. (like say www or ftp)
(this provides a security trap, anyone gaining access to the www account should only have permission over the web server and nothing else.)

This is a little disconcerting for windows users.

So going back to tip 1... since its network aware you might log-in at the same time as someone else. You can both work indepenantly, even both log into the same machine and have two keyboards and mice operating different X servers.

Indeed Im using a Solaris machine right now with 200 others!!!

This whole concept is totally alien to Windows people. If you ever used ICA/CITRIX its like that except UNIX just does this.....

Sorting this outr in your head is kinda hard if you don't actually use a mutiliuser environment....like I say its actually being used implicity by linux BUT you are not aware of it whereas when the users are REAL users you become aware!!! then when you look at the pseudo-users and put it in context it makes sense.
Again, I just wanted you to know that this has been going through my head for the past couple weeks. I finally was told something that I needed to learn to get past my first learning hurtle.

As I was reading this it seemed like a audible "ping" went off in my head.

For the first time I got what it means to have an X-server! It had always confused me. I didn't get what its purpose was. (My thinking was, "Why didn't it just get glued to the kernal"?) Now it makes sense:

Linux = Unix clone,
Unix was created to be used as a large mainframe computer,
Terminals are used to connect to the big mainframe computer,
The X-"sever" is used to hand out a GUI to the terminals!!!!!!! Yah!!!

Beyond that there was other things that would just come to me during the past week or two, as I was mulling over your words.

You have given me a spark to want to learn again.

Thank-you agian, obi-wan.