Things to be improved

[minthaka]

The following are my reflections about the troubles would hinder a Windows addicted to move to Linux:
1. Linux is not flexible toward the mistakes of the users. When you unplug an USB stick without "Save Removal" option, it may happen that you'll have to restart the system to get recognized and mounted it again.
2. It very often happens that the copied files cannot be deleted, renamed, edited. I always considered /home/username/ to be a public place, so the files coming here ought to be -rw by default. O.K., I know how to make them editable/deletable etc. But what will do a newbie, who is scared just about anything in his/her shiny brand new Linux? (The first thought is to remove Linux, I'd bet)
Have you something to add?

Edit: Well, I mistyped the title: Things to be improved

[techieMoe]

I'm surprised you didn't mention support for languages other than English.

[bigtomrodney]

If a user copies a file then the file will have their permissions on it, i.e. they are the user in user,group,others. If the file was copied as root then of course root permissions apply. Did you copy the file as root or using sudo?

[bidi]

I'm not so sure about either one of your issues.

The first one isn't definately not ture for me. I think the main issue is that *nix in general do not move/copy/remove file synchronously so if you're moving a lot of file to your USB disk, for example, even though the system says the file was copied, this may not be true at all time. I've never, however, had this issue with Nautilus since it gives you that little progress window. I've also removed without the "safe removal" options a few times because the drive didn't want to cooperate (I know the risks, but I do it anyway) and never had the issue you mention. This issue isn't Linux only though, in Windows, if you remove your USB stick without "safe removal" you risk loosing EVERYTHING! I used to work as a lab assistant at the local college and I saw many students loose everything they had because they just pulled the USB stick out without first doing the "safe removal", after all, it's called "safe removal" for a reason, you don't have to do it, but it's "safe".

The second issue depends on how your umask is set (mine is 0022, rwxrw-rw-, which means all files I create are read/write/executable for me, read/write for everyone else). Obviously, if another user creates a file in your dir the owner of that file will be whoever created it.

[minthaka]

O.K. but what to do when my kid of 2 accidentally pulled it out? I didn't succeeded to use it even with Windows on the same machine. But on an other PC it works. And also other USB sticks are working fine.

About the files: I've copied MP3s from a DVD to my Music folder with Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V sequence and after I could not edit their tags until I did "chmod -R 777 ./" .

About the English support: Distros other than Mepis have proper support for foreign languages.

[Roxoff]

About the files: I've copied MP3s from a DVD to my Music folder with Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V sequence and after I could not edit their tags until I did "chmod -R 777 ./" .

lol, so you've copied files from a read-only medium to a read-write medium and the permissions have coped too... Have you ever done this on Windows? It behaves in exactly the same way, the permissions are copied too. Changing it is different, though; on windows you don't just use one chmod command to set the permissions on the command line, you have to get to your mouse, right-click the files, select 'properties' from the pop-up menu, select the tab with the permissions on it, untick the 'read-only' tick box then finally press 'OK' to close the box. And even then if the list of files you've selected contains 'folders', it'll ask if you want the permissions change to apply inside the folders or not.

[ryokimball]

Changing it is different, though; on windows you don't just use one chmod command to set the permissions on the command line, you have to get to your mouse, right-click the files, select 'properties' from the pop-up menu, select the tab with the permissions on it, untick the 'read-only' tick box then finally press 'OK' to close the box. And even then if the list of files you've selected contains 'folders', it'll ask if you want the permissions change to apply inside the folders or not.

lol! With absolutely no offense intended toward Roxoff, I just wanted to mention how the power of language is so often abused as is any other instance. It is just as easy to say "right click the files, go to properties, then permissions and untick "read only." I mean, the rest would be pretty much understood by any user, windows or not. Like I said, I do not mean this aggressively; I just think it's funny when people choose big drawn out explanations only to sway things in their favor. In my windows-grown, GUI based opinion, ten clicks is better than three characters to type, I suppose because it has been forever since I had to mess with terminal stuff for anything serious --until the last year or so, that is.

But there is a easy command prompt way of editing attributes in Windows (if it is of any interest to the people in this forum):

attrib filename.ext +/- (r,h,a,s)

where r is read only, h is hidden, a is archive, and s is system (I think that's it; and that's plus or minus, then the letters for the necessary attribute --no parentheses needed)

[techieMoe]

In my windows-grown, GUI based opinion, ten clicks is better than three characters to type

Wow. We couldn't disagree more. I actually installed Cygwin so I could manipulate files on my XP work machine from BASH. I absolutely *despise* having to right click and go to properties to change things. One command and I'm done.

In fact, I can't even stand the regular MS Windows command line. Another reason I installed Cygwin was so I could use ls instead of 'dir' and rm instead of 'del'.

[carlosponti]

Wow. We couldn't disagree more. I actually installed Cygwin so I could manipulate files on my XP work machine from BASH. I absolutely *despise* having to right click and go to properties to change things. One command and I'm done.

In fact, I can't even stand the regular MS Windows command line. Another reason I installed Cygwin was so I could use ls instead of 'dir' and rm instead of 'del'.

true geekdom is bringing back the command line lol

[Roxoff]

lol! With absolutely no offense intended toward Roxoff,

lol, none taken - I've got quite a thick skin, y'know. Dont be afraid to be honest!

I just wanted to mention how the power of language is so often abused as is any other instance. It is just as easy to say "right click the files, go to properties, then permissions and untick "read only." I mean, the rest would be pretty much understood by any user, windows or not. Like I said, I do not mean this aggressively; I just think it's funny when people choose big drawn out explanations only to sway things in their favor. In my windows-grown, GUI based opinion, ten clicks is better than three characters to type, I suppose because it has been forever since I had to mess with terminal stuff for anything serious --until the last year or so, that is.
...

Of course, the irony is that you have GUI control in Linux too... Open a nautilus (that's the Gnome file manager) right-click the file and select the 'Permissions' tab. Try using the both methods on Windows...