Windows Longhorn and Drive Letters

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  1. 06-27-2005, 08:49 PM #1
    mr_oh_so_ice
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    Windows Longhorn and Drive Letters

    I read that by default in Longhorn that drive letters are now hidden. Being brought up on computer technology during the DOS faze, I didn't really like this idea, but come to think of it, I think its not bad considering the number of flash and "hard disk" like things you can attach to a PC these days. Eg. MP3 players, digital cameras, stick readers, USB hard drives, firewire drives, it would be nice to just use volume names. What do you guys think?

    By the way I think its good that PCs are finally starting to get rid of legacy components like the parallel port, serial port, PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors, etc. Legacy software components like drive letters is probably the next thing.
    Last edited by mr_oh_so_ice; 06-27-2005 at 08:50 PM.
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  2. 06-27-2005, 11:52 PM #2
    Ashpool
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    Drive letters make me feel happy. ARRRRRRGH.

    Even Macs still use drive letters... Right?
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  3. 06-28-2005, 07:08 AM #3
    mr_oh_so_ice
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    I don't think drive letters are used by Macs. At least not on Macs that I have used. They are labelled hard disk and floppy. Lol, I didn't know how to eject a Mac floppy, was looking around for the eject button on the computer, then I checked the help section, and it said to drag the floppy icon to the trash and then it popped my disk out. But I never referred to a Mac floppy as the "A" drive.
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  4. 06-28-2005, 09:45 AM #4
    SkyDog
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ashpool
    Even Macs still use drive letters... Right?
    Macs have never used drive letters.

    I don't mind drive letters going away so long as there's still a way for items to be addressable via scripts and such. I really don't even care if it's a drive letter, UNC path, or some type of mount point.
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  6. 06-28-2005, 05:07 PM #5
    pudad
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ashpool
    Drive letters make me feel happy. ARRRRRRGH.

    Even Macs still use drive letters... Right?

    Nope. OSX is going to address storage volumes as a device name mounted to directory like any other unix-like system. And btw, I don't think NT does drive letters on the inards, it is all just presentation: so that idiot dos and 9x users could figure out what to do. Also, nt is capable of mounting volumes to any directory as ua mentioned.
    Last edited by pudad; 06-28-2005 at 05:09 PM.
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  7. 06-28-2005, 07:29 AM #6
    Thermo
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    From an admin point of view, I don't like it. It would mean that we have to retrain users on local data managment because the terminology will change.
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  8. 06-28-2005, 07:55 AM #7
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    Using Linux & UNIX regularly, it's easy to adapt to a file structure without volume names. But traditional Windows doesn't lend itself easily to that concept because it grew up under DOS. In the long run, whether it's a mount point under /dev or some archiac letter to designate the volume, it would all work.

    One headache could be support for legacy programs -- but if they're just 'hidden' and still exist, there's hope those of use who like drive letters can still use them.

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  9. 06-28-2005, 09:11 AM #8
    ua549
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    I don't really use multiple drive letters because every drive I have is either mounted on the root drive or in an array. Mounting volumes has been a part of Windows since NTFS came out in the early 90's.
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  11. 06-28-2005, 05:08 PM #9
    pudad
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    Quote Originally Posted by ua549
    I don't really use multiple drive letters because every drive I have is either mounted on the root drive or in an array. Mounting volumes has been a part of Windows since NTFS came out in the early 90's.
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  12. 06-28-2005, 09:53 AM #10
    Bearded Kirklander
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    I'm used to drive letters and prefer them. I guess I could stick with XP for a while longer to see how that all pans out.
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  13. 06-28-2005, 04:28 PM #11
    rabidmoose171
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    longhorns gonna be a system whore anyway...
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  14. 06-28-2005, 04:33 PM #12
    Bearded Kirklander
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    Quote Originally Posted by rabidmoose171
    longhorns gonna be a system whore anyway...
    I wonder what it will offer that will make it worth getting?

    I wonder if MS will shove it down our throats like they did with XP and drop support/patches/service packs for previous releases to force us to change?
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  15. 06-28-2005, 04:36 PM #13
    ImaNihilist
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bearded Kirklander
    I wonder what it will offer that will make it worth getting?

    I wonder if MS will shove it down our throats like they did with XP and drop support/patches/service packs for previous releases to force us to change?
    That's pretty much how it goes.
    Or they could switch to the OSX deployment platform. Force you to upgrade ever year for $130.

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  16. 06-28-2005, 06:50 PM #14
    SprySpectre
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    Quote Originally Posted by ImaNihilist
    That's pretty much how it goes.
    Or they could switch to the OSX deployment platform. Force you to upgrade ever year for $130.
    But apple doesn't do that exactly. Tiger isn't a necessity these days, just a luxury. Only the mac fanatics seem to think it's necessary. Most applications run just fine on OS 10.x, which released in 2001 IIRC.
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  17. 06-28-2005, 06:55 PM #15
    ImaNihilist
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    Quote Originally Posted by SprySpectre
    But apple doesn't do that exactly. Tiger isn't a necessity these days, just a luxury. Only the mac fanatics seem to think it's necessary. Most applications run just fine on OS 10.x, which released in 2001 IIRC.
    Huh. I was under the impression that things like FinalCut needed 10.4, least that's what it says on the box.

    Even the latest version of iLife says 10.3.6 on the box.
    Last edited by ImaNihilist; 06-28-2005 at 06:56 PM.
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