Suggestion for next MS OS or Linux..

[IamDavid]

@work and @home I have to go into directories with 100+ files.. Usually to access the same few files again and again. It would be sweet to be able to highlight the file and text. Or somehow make it possible to enlarge the text of certain files I want.

Anyone else think it would be usefull? Or maybe is it already possible?

 

[spyordie007]

I'm not aware of a way to specificly highlight the file; but you can do searches to quickly limit the view down to just what you want.

 

[drag]

What is being done in Linux. OS X, and I beleive in Windows is were you have virtual folders that would contain search results or other such things. Like virtual folders or whatnot. Maybe that's what googledesktop does, not sure, never used it.

So you have some service running in the background and it creates a database of files based on their contents and any aviable metadata (data about data; stuff like last time accessed, exim data in photos, program that created it, etc etc). Then you have plugins for things like email, calendering or whatnot that catalogs those items also.

Then after that is done then it would tie into your file manager were you can setup folders that represent search results. Should be in Vista, right? And next versions of KDE and Gnome in Linux should have similar capabilities also, I expect. OS X has it right now, as usual.

That's not exactly what you wanted, but I think it may accomplish what you want after a fasion.

 

[spyordie007]

Should be in Vista, right?

Yes they call it (in this build) "Search Folders"; basically just a predefined/saved query of the file metadata.

They have an engine that runs in the background that gathers and indexes the data and you can perform searches against it (very similar to OS X)

 

[kamper]

Some linux filesystems have arbitrary metadata facilities for files (that's probably not the proper term, been a while since I've read about it). You could create your own tag, stick it on files that you want to be special and then modify whatever filesystem browser you use to check for that tag and display the name differently.

 

[IamDavid]

Kamper, I'd never heard of that.. I will have to look into it..

As for the "folder search" apps, I like them but they don't help with my problem. Not really a problem, more like a minor annoyance..

 

[silverpig]

Yeah linux does that... or can. I know in gnome you can add little tags on the icons that show up in nautilus... right click on it, properties, emblems. Might be what you're looking for.

 

[Nothinman]

It's called a command history, if you're working on the same files a lot just keep that shell around so you can hit the up arrow to run it again. =)

 

[PsychoUnit]

They already disclosed many rumors on the Microsoft OS after Vista. It is supposed to revolutionize the Operating System world completely. Supposedly they were supposed to revolutionize with Vista but changed their plans, so I'm not sure if I am to believe them.

Although, you should send them that suggestion. Once I sent them a suggestion for MSN search engine and they did take it into consideration within 3 weeks.

 

[Brazen]

I would like to see drive snapshot capabilities, built into the OS. For instance say you want to test out some software: you take a snapshot, then try it out and if you don't like it, revert back to the snapshot you took. I do this with snapshots in VMWare virtual machines all the time, and SAN equipment can take partition snapshots. It would be nice if Windows or Linux could take point-in-time snapshots of the disk partition.

Maybe this is kinda what System Restore is supposed to do, but it doesn't seem to revert the filesystem back to exactly how it was, it just restores (or attempts to) the registry and system files or some stuff.

 

[P0ldy]

You can install an application into a chroot jail on Linux, although that's not ideal. LVM can take snapshots like you're talking about, too. Probably EVMS as well.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: P0ldy
You can install an application into a chroot jail on Linux, although that's not ideal. LVM can take snapshots like you're talking about, too. Probably EVMS as well.

You could do this...

Setup LVM. Patch your kernel for Vserver (super chroot, basicly) http://linux-vserver.org/ or Xen (VM enviroment) or User-mode Linux and then install a base install on a LVM volume.

Then after that you can do a bunch of installs on many read-write snapshots.

Or not and just use snapshots to do undo on your root directory with one normal Linux install. But it's nice sometimes to be able to run many multiple Linux installs on one box simultaniously when you feel like it.


Also you can use LVM snapshots in addition to SAMBA to replicate the 'Shadow Copy' feature aviable with Windows 2003 server. http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba3-HOWTO/VFS.html
(although I don't think many people bother to use these features so it may not be that stable. Should work with Microsoft's shadow copy clients though.)

EVMS is pretty similar from what I understand.

Ah.. It feels nice to be able break away from x86's legacy imposed BS like harddrive 'partitions'.

 

[IamDavid]

Originally posted by: PsychoUnit
They already disclosed many rumors on the Microsoft OS after Vista. It is supposed to revolutionize the Operating System world completely. Supposedly they were supposed to revolutionize with Vista but changed their plans, so I'm not sure if I am to believe them.

Although, you should send them that suggestion. Once I sent them a suggestion for MSN search engine and they did take it into consideration within 3 weeks.

I have seen a few stages of Vista.. Very nice looking interface and what not but nothing like what I need.. Guess I am going to switch back to Linux and see how it works...

 

[gsellis]

The easier way to implement something like this would be to add a file attribute or white list and create your own custom "explorer" application that did this for you. It does not need a new OS version.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: drag

Originally posted by: P0ldy
You can install an application into a chroot jail on Linux, although that's not ideal. LVM can take snapshots like you're talking about, too. Probably EVMS as well.

You could do this...

Setup LVM. Patch your kernel for Vserver (super chroot, basicly) http://linux-vserver.org/ or Xen (VM enviroment) or User-mode Linux and then install a base install on a LVM volume.

Then after that you can do a bunch of installs on many read-write snapshots.

Or not and just use snapshots to do undo on your root directory with one normal Linux install. But it's nice sometimes to be able to run many multiple Linux installs on one box simultaniously when you feel like it.


Also you can use LVM snapshots in addition to SAMBA to replicate the 'Shadow Copy' feature aviable with Windows 2003 server. http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba3-HOWTO/VFS.html
(although I don't think many people bother to use these features so it may not be that stable. Should work with Microsoft's shadow copy clients though.)

EVMS is pretty similar from what I understand.

Ah.. It feels nice to be able break away from x86's legacy imposed BS like harddrive 'partitions'.

Linux is the sh!t. It's like every thing you can think of is already being done in linux. The suck part it that eventually Microsoft will get around to doing it and everyone will think Microsoft had this incredibly awesome new idea.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: drag

Originally posted by: P0ldy
You can install an application into a chroot jail on Linux, although that's not ideal. LVM can take snapshots like you're talking about, too. Probably EVMS as well.

You could do this...

Setup LVM. Patch your kernel for Vserver (super chroot, basicly) http://linux-vserver.org/ or Xen (VM enviroment) or User-mode Linux and then install a base install on a LVM volume.

Then after that you can do a bunch of installs on many read-write snapshots.

Or not and just use snapshots to do undo on your root directory with one normal Linux install. But it's nice sometimes to be able to run many multiple Linux installs on one box simultaniously when you feel like it.


Also you can use LVM snapshots in addition to SAMBA to replicate the 'Shadow Copy' feature aviable with Windows 2003 server. http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba3-HOWTO/VFS.html
(although I don't think many people bother to use these features so it may not be that stable. Should work with Microsoft's shadow copy clients though.)

EVMS is pretty similar from what I understand.

Ah.. It feels nice to be able break away from x86's legacy imposed BS like harddrive 'partitions'.

Is it possible to make partial snapshots (snapshots that only contain the changes since the snapshot was made)?

 

[drag]

Is it possible to make partial snapshots (snapshots that only contain the changes since the snapshot was made)?

Now keep in mind that I am not 100% sure about all of this. I've haven't had a chance to play around with snapshots lately.

With LVM2 you have the ability to make 'read/write' snapshots, buy their terminology.

LVM1 would only be able to make read-only snapshots.

See here

This opens up many new possibilities that were not possible with LVM1's read-only snapshots. One example is to snapshot a volume, mount the snapshot, and try an experimental program that change files on that volume. If you don't like what it did, you can unmount the snapshot, remove it, and mount the original filesystem in its place. It is also useful for creating volumes for use with Xen. You can create a disk image, then snapshot it and modify the snapshot for a particular domU instance. You can then create another snapshot of the original volume, and modify that one for a different domU instance. Since the only storage used by a snapshot is blocks that were changed on the origin or the snapshot, the majority of the volume is shared by the domU's.

(DomU are 'hosted' virtual computers running operating systems, right now usually Linux distros or NetBSD)


So basicly you take the snapshot and mount it then use that. The original volume would remain unmolested by any changes and the snapshot will realy only have the changes.

So I think that's what your talking about.

Also there are other options. Such as UnionFS, which is what Knoppix uses to allow you to install software on a read-only cdrom via apt-get by overlaying a seperate ram-only disk.
http://www.oreillynet.com/sysadmin/blog...03/knoppix_38_and_unionfs_wow_jus.html


And if you want to look at realy realy bizzare stuff. Look at the various file systems based on FUSE. (kernel provides bare minimum file system, then users can create and mount their own stuff without any administration privilages). There maybe something there that will do what you want.

They have database-based file systems. A HTTP file system that downloads blocks as you use them off of the internet on a on-demand basis. A Gmail FS. A FS that exposes functions from a certain programming language as files. All sorts of crazy stuff.
http://fuse.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/OperatingSystems
http://fuse.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/FileSystems

For other people there is a couple Fuse-based file systems for dealing with NTFS volumes.
http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/367

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: drag

Is it possible to make partial snapshots (snapshots that only contain the changes since the snapshot was made)?

Now keep in mind that I am not 100% sure about all of this. I've haven't had a chance to play around with snapshots lately.

With LVM2 you have the ability to make 'read/write' snapshots, buy their terminology.

LVM1 would only be able to make read-only snapshots.

See here

This opens up many new possibilities that were not possible with LVM1's read-only snapshots. One example is to snapshot a volume, mount the snapshot, and try an experimental program that change files on that volume. If you don't like what it did, you can unmount the snapshot, remove it, and mount the original filesystem in its place. It is also useful for creating volumes for use with Xen. You can create a disk image, then snapshot it and modify the snapshot for a particular domU instance. You can then create another snapshot of the original volume, and modify that one for a different domU instance. Since the only storage used by a snapshot is blocks that were changed on the origin or the snapshot, the majority of the volume is shared by the domU's.

(DomU are 'hosted' virtual computers running operating systems, right now usually Linux distros or NetBSD)


So basicly you take the snapshot and mount it then use that. The original volume would remain unmolested by any changes and the snapshot will realy only have the changes.

So I think that's what your talking about.

Yes that is exactly what I was talking about. The key phrase there is: "the only storage used by a snapshot is blocks that were changed"