this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2026
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    [–] Broadfern@lemmy.world 144 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    Tbf Dolphin calls them folders

    [–] thenextguy@sh.itjust.works 142 points 1 week ago (5 children)

    And every Linux directory icon is a folder. This is a non issue.

    [–] HouseWolf@pawb.social 111 points 1 week ago (6 children)

    Shhhh the CLI purists haven't figured out what icons are yet.

    [–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 1 week ago (1 children)

    You mean those religious pictures old Italian and Russian people have?

    [–] BartyDeCanter@piefed.social 24 points 1 week ago

    oh oh! Are those the extra logos and things added by nerdfonts?

    [–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)
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    What does Tuna call them?

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    [–] _NetNomad@fedia.io 110 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    something very similar in mainframe land where they call files "datasets." if you call a dataset a file, get ready to get an earfull!

    which is ironic considering IBM themselves often call them files and one of the most popular dataset utilities is called FileAid. but if we acknowledge that, we lose a valuable opportunity to belittle and exclude newcomers

    [–] bobzrkr@sh.itjust.works 66 points 1 week ago (6 children)

    In AWS S3, they're objects, not files. But you upload files to objects. And can download an object to a file. But they're not files. Trust me bro.

    [–] AmyAye@nord.pub 28 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    You know, the same deal kind of applies about "losing newcomers". Because I avooded using AWS because everything seemed cryptic and weird with its terminology. So other companies got my business.

    avooded

    Awoooo!

    [–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago

    Cryptic and weird and their documentation is the worst.

    [–] ViatorOmnium@piefed.social 7 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    That's mostly because it doesn't have real directories, it just simulates them with string prefixes and if you forget that on large buckets you are going to have a bad time.

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    [–] sik0fewl@piefed.ca 30 points 1 week ago

    It’s called gatekeeping. You wouldn’t get it.

    [–] rtxn@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

    Reminds me of the oilfield unit hell. If you even mention an SI unit on an offshore drilling platform, your beheaded carcass will be displayed on top of the derrick as a warning for others, left to be devoured by birds and the salty wind.

    [–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 35 points 1 week ago (1 children)

    For what it's worth, they're referred to as directories by command prompt and PowerShell (effectively the new Windows command prompt) tools as Windows as well.

    [–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 30 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    And always had been in DOS before Windows.

    Folder is just an easier concept for the average person to grok, so I say folder to them.

    [–] cylinder0093@fedinsfw.app 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

    It's two fewer syllables and a more straightforward analogy. It's just a better name

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    [–] DontRedditMyLemmy@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Call them inodes and see what happens next

    [–] Forester@pawb.social 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

    An inode is not a folder it's metadata for a folder OR a file.

    It would be more correct to say all folders are txt files

    [–] dtrain@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

    An inode is not a folder it's metadata for a folder OR a file.

    Demonstrating the parent’s point in real time.

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    [–] squinky@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 week ago (1 children)

    Anyone gives me a hard time about that, I’m reverting to Amiga and calling it a β€œdrawer”

    i just call 'em all "that fuckin' thing" and if anyone complains, they can talk to this guy

    [–] Sprocketfree@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 week ago

    That's idiotic. We all know it's a file, everything's a FILE!

    [–] Dookieman12@piefed.social 26 points 1 week ago

    Just call it a 'container object' and you can be technically correct in almost every context.

    See also: in SQL and Dataverse, a row is called a 'record', but in SharePoint and Lists, a row is called an 'item', and MAN do people get all pissy if you get them mixed up or refer to it as a 'row'.

    It's even more aggravating when you understand that 1) they're all different implementations of the 'table' data structure, so the term is still accurate; 'records' and 'items' are just subsets of 'rows', and 2) SharePoint and Lists are just SQL on the backend anyway.

    Like, obviously you knew what I meant, but how is your ego gonna get stroked unless you preach about pedantic details that don't matter?

    [–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 25 points 1 week ago

    I use directory and folder interchangeably

    [–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 24 points 1 week ago

    Don't care, KDE says "create new folder", it's a folder.

    [–] Gormadt@slrpnk.net 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

    You'll pry my old outdated terminology from my cold dead hands lol

    [–] comador@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

    I'll toast to that from my Remix OS coffee mug currently sitting on my SunOS mouse pad.

    [–] RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 15 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    If I'm browsing in a GUI they're folders. If I'm using a CLI they're directories. Except when I decide to do the opposite in either situation. Everything I do is the correct method and the only people who are wrong are whoever disagree with me. Unless they're hot.

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    [–] AntY@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

    They’re called files!

    [–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 12 points 1 week ago

    I call them "bags of holding" because their capacity is undefined.

    [–] Jyek@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago

    ZFS head correcting you to "dataset"

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