Dad's recently made an observation about a fundamental difference in style between Mac OS X and Linux programs. Basically, there are two entirely different ways of working on a computer:
- Program-centric — work centres around particular programs. You "import" your photos into a program, which then manages them as it sees fit. To at least some extent, the program "owns" the data. Your base of operations is the program, the data is secondary.
- Data-centric — work centres around the documents. With photos, for instance, you might have them sorted into various directories. Then you start various programs on them, depending on what you want to do. Your base of operations is a file manager, the programs are secondary.
Generally, OS X (and MS Windows) tends to prefer the program-centric approach, while Linux favours the data-centric one. They each have their advantages and disadvantages, of course, but the data-centric approach tends to be more flexible in the long run.
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