Hi Russell,

I use POV on Simply Mepis Linux, not a Mac. I think I made a few minor
mistakes when I installed POV (I was still very new to Linux), but it
functions ok. I've been using Linux for less than a year, so I'm no expert.
:)

Are you familiar with TLDP? Check out the home page for all the Linux
documentation you can eat, but for starters here's a good page on the Unix
file system, including a tree diagram you can print & stick on your wall:

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/sect_03_01.html

> 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?

Yes, you need to use ls -a to list hidden files & directories in the current
directory. And all hidden files have a period as the first character of
their name. But the system /usr directory shouldn't be hidden, AFAIK.

> > 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?

No. The root directory has no actual file name: it is simply referenced by
the slash character. Go into a shell and type

 ls -a /

This will list the root directory, including any hidden files &
sub-directories.
usr will be one of these directories in any sensible Unix-like OS.

> 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.

Yes, you should only operate as root to install and sometimes, to configure
things. If malware can't get into your root account, it won't be able to
install nasties. Make sense?

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