> > It is not nearly as nice as the Mac GUI versions, Official or MegaPov.
>
> i recognize a gluton for punishment when i see one... :)

What? What? A GUI is "punishment"? I will take a moment and grok that.

All right, all right, yes, after a fashion, it is punishment.



> > "usr"
> > folder but never once mentioned that, on the Mac, this folder is invisible
> > to the Finder!
>
> don't use the Finder then.  Use a command-line shell like good ol' Unix
> tradition demands.  Your geek points will raise as well... :)


Hey I've been using a shell. But as I recall, when my geekiness reached a
certain pinnacle, and I typed "ls" into the command line and pressed enter,
I nver saw "usr". But if it is preceded by a period, even "ls" would not
show it, right?

> > Hence, I thought, "Oh well, they must mean my "Users" folder, and they must
> > mean I should install somewhere in my Home folder, in my Users folder."
>
> The traditional Unix filesystem is like this:
>
> / -> root directory ("folder").  it is just used as a hub for the others and


OK, Nemesis, please clarify: is "usr" typically the name of this root
folder, parent to all other directories?


>
> so, when you install a program in Unix in the standard way, executables are
> placed in /usr/bin, any shared libs it uses go to /usr/lib and system-wide
> configuration go to /etc, while user specific generally go as a "hidden"
> file in your user /home directory, like ~/.povray -- files beginning with a
> dot are "hidden" in Unix, ie, they don't get listed by the default ls
> command just when the -a flag is used.  Hidden files are just text files
> and you can edit then by something like vim ~/.povray

> > installing
> > as Root. Why? Why in the world invoke this horrific power? One can just as
> > easily install as the default Administrator.
>
> root is the default "Administrator" in the Unix world.  The account you talk
> about may have some of its power, but probably with a lesser privilege
> level.  Enough to allow you to install to those directories...


Well, in my ignorance, I have scouted around the internet, and I read one
convincing piece which said basically, don't do anything as Root if you can
avoid it. One could inadvertently do all kinds of terrible things.

Your remarks make things much clearer. Thank you!

RT

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