Why do we "mount" in Mandrake?

[Kenji4861]

I just started using Linux (Mandrake) and I'm just not understanding why we have to mount CD-Rom drives, disk drives etc.

What does mounting exactly do? Does Windows do that too in the background?

 

[Nothinman]

Yes, Windows mounts drives in the background.

Linux doesn't do it automatically because the single filesystem in which any directory can be a mount point (i.e. I can mount a cdrom at /mnt/cdrom, /tmp, /wherever) is a lot more flexible but it also means it's nearly impossible for the OS to guess what you want. Mandrake normally (atleast I thought) includes automount daemons that automatically mount cdroms, floppies, etc when you try to access them.

 

[Epyon9283]

Mandrake includes(in X), nice little icons representing your floppy and cd-rom. if you click them, it mounts the drives.