LinspireGuide - Directory Structure

If you are fresh from Windows the weirdest thing about Linspire is probably the directory structure.

Linux commands and directories are a direct copy of the original Unix commands and directories from which Linus Torvalds first created Linux. Unix is an operating system designed by programmers who hated typing, so everything is as short as possible.

/ - Root directory, everything goes under this one.
/etc - Directory for configuration files, and system startup config files.
/bin - Binaries (programs) that make up the base installation set for the OS.
/sbin - Binaries for system programs - i.e. shutdown, poweroff, etc.
/lib - Libraries for programs to compile with
/usr - Software and libraries
/usr/bin - Binaries for the programs that are installed/
/usr/sbin - More binaries for system programs.
/usr/lib - Libraries
/usr/include - Include files that are used for developing/compiling software
/usr/share - Software that is installed and accessable by all users on the computer.
/usr/local - Some software installs in this directory; the structure is similar to the base
/usr directory
/usr/src - Source code for programs that have source installed.
/var - In a nut shell, storage space for programs to use - I'm still a little hazy on exactly what this one all does myself :)
/tmp - Temporary files are placed in here
/dev - Devices on the system. All the ports and hardware devices are in here.
/boot - Stuff for booting up the computer.
/mnt - In Linux, if you add another drive, the drive is mounted. That is, a folder is created for it, and the contents of the drive are accessible from that folder. Drives mounted in Linux are usually placed in /mnt
/disks - This structure has folders in it for other hard disks/partitions mounted in your system. I believe that this one is Lindows specific.

You may also see folders for /cdrom or /cdrom2 if you have a cdrom installed and a disk mounted.

Here's a description of the user directories (where all personal files are stored)

/home - in a multi user environment, all user directories are placed in this one. Since Linspire logs you in as 'root' or Administrator by default, the home directory is /root
/root - Equivalent to the 'My Documents' folder in the Linux world.

Linspire also has the My Documents folder for storing all your personal files. When saving files, most Linux programs use your home directory (in this case, root) as default, so to make finding the My Documents directory a little easier, Linspire has placed a link to this folder in the /root directory.

Since Linux has no registry like Windows does, all program settings are stored in files in the /root directory. Files or folders that begin with a '.' are hidden, and usually have settings for programs.

In addition to the Linux directory structure, there is also the WINE (windows emulator) WINE actually stands for WINE is not an Emulator but it is... but its not... directory structure that is used for emulating the Windows environment. There is a /C: folder with the common Windows structure in it.

Hopefully this description gives you a decent overview of the Linux file system. At least now you might be able to explore things and get a 'feel' for what is going on.

Linspire tries to conform to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) for Linux.