Doug remarked: I wasn't asking permission, I was asking what the devil this is (subfs), and why we should have it at all? /rant on It also seems to me, that if Linux is to become a desktop system, it has to become more user-friendly, not less. If it is only going to be used in the corporate workplace, then probably a lot of these protective devices need to be in place, but if I'm going to use it in my home--without any kids, even--then there should be a simple way to turn most of these protections off. There does not seem to be any real need to prevent the user from writing to most of the media, except the root files. There might be a simple setup to allow a few users (mom, Pop, and the kids) separate permissions, but the idea of preventing anyone from doing anything ever is ridiculous. And, even someone in an office might like to copy something to a floppy or a CD for safe keeping. Yeah, maybe Linux doesn't crash, but systems do. rant off/ --doug =============== Doug, You obviously haven't seen 9.1 yet or you would have a better understanding of the subfs system. As Patrick pointed out, it is indeed something to add user friendliness to the Linux desktop. It is something that is needed to draw other OS users to Linux on the desktop. How many times have you tried explaining to someone why you have to "mount" or "unmount" removable drives in Linux? They begin to think you are talking about your computer in sexual terms after a bit! ;o) That is the reason for subfs system, to eliminate that. I think this relates to the "supermount" project, which kinda died and is now the "submount" thing in SuSE. You no longer have to mount or unmount, it's done automatically with this. Just put a disc/disk in, it reads it, opens it and when done, hit the eject button on the drive! I too agree with Patrick, in that a bit of reading before ranting might have helped to prevent the rant. ;o) As always, Linux is about choice and you can revert your setup back to the old way, if you so desire. So far, I haven't seen any reason to do that as this is quite convenient and I'm already spoiled. Regards, Lee -- --- KMail v1.6.2 --- SuSE Linux Pro v9.1 --- Registered Linux User #225206 On any other day, that might seem strange...