Another controversial change for Ubuntu 10.04: File size policy

[Southern Patriot]

Kilo means 10^3 everywhere, always and forever. It's an international standard clearly defined to be for powers of 10.

The IEC resolution that defined that was only passed in 1999. Those of us who have been using computers since the early 80's (or longer) know better.

[XerXis]

Because it works better for digital calculations. Ask yourself why 1Byte has 8 bits? For the same reason, having 9bits you wouldn't be able to divide by 2, and 8 is a better choice than 10 because it's 2^3, while 10 is not a power of 2. 1024 is 2^10, while 1000 is not a power of 2 which complicates the ability of processors to calculate data.

Everything is in their right place, there is no use to put decimal system in computers because the hardware itself will never use it.

while dividing by a power of 2 is a bitshift operation and dividing by a power of 10 is not (yes i've programmed both RISC and CISC processors), and thus you are right about speed. Do you really think that expressing file size according to standards will have an impact on your computer performance?

[Rob2687]

So that's why it's been reading my HD as 500GB lately instead of 488GB or something.

[HawkMan]

Unless you're from a country that actually use base 10 for their measurements, ie, not inches, feet, yards, stone, puntd and whatever, you are not allowed to complain about kilobytes being 1024 bytes. :p

[Xenon]

Doesn't it seem that Ubuntu is getting a bad case of OS X envy?

[XerXis]

Unless you're from a country that actually use base 10 for their measurements, ie, not inches, feet, yards, stone, puntd and whatever, you are not allowed to complain about kilobytes being 1024 bytes. :p

you mean like every country in the world except the USA :p

[Anooxy]

while dividing by a power of 2 is a bitshift operation and dividing by a power of 10 is not (yes i've programmed both RISC and CISC processors), and thus you are right about speed. Do you really think that expressing file size according to standards will have an impact on your computer performance?

Obviously not, I'm just explaining that what we've used as 1KiB = 1024 Bit is correct and not wrong.

[megamanXplosion]

HawkMan, what about us crazy Americans who want to see our country switch to a decimalized system of measurement? Can we complain or not? =P

[bogas04]

To me its not grey , its not metal , its purple , so its not copied

:D

[Rigby]

you mean like every country in the world except the USA :p

Stone is used in the UK, but yeah. They tried to switch us over in the 70s and we told them to go jump off a cliff.

[tiagosilva29]

you mean like every country in the world except the USA :p

Liberia and Burma too.

Everything should be represented in bits! **** kilobytes and kibibytes!

[HawkMan]

HawkMan, what about us crazy Americans who want to see our country switch to a decimalized system of measurement? Can we complain or not? =P

Not untill you do something about it, no :p

[Growled Member]

Doesn't it seem that Ubuntu is getting a bad case of OS X envy?

Big time. I guess if you're going to copy, copy from the best. ;)

[the evn show]

The IEC resolution that defined that was only passed in 1999. Those of us who have been using computers since the early 80's (or longer) know better.

kilo is taken from the metric system which has it's origins around 400 years ago. The prefix 'kilo' itself derives form a similar-sounding greek word meaning thousand.

[Kirkburn]

Y'know, it's hardly an earth shattering change.

It's not preventing the 1,024 method of calculation from existing, just correcting the terminology used ... and it's a change that's long overdue. Just because it's "always been wrong" doesn't mean it has to stay that way.

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

Y'know, it's hardly an earth shattering change.

It's not preventing the 1,024 method of calculation from existing, just correcting the terminology used ... and it's a change that's long overdue. Just because it's "always been wrong" doesn't mean it has to stay that way.

(Y)

Good for Ubuntu (and I don't say that often :p)

[Udedenkz]

This is the wrong place where 'dumbing-down' of Ubuntu needs to happen (in order to increase user-friendliness). :no:

[Growled Member]

I doubt if most users will either know or care about this.

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

Why change something after so many years? People need to learn computers work on the base2 structure and not base10.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Why change something after so many years? People need to learn computers work on the base2 structure and not base10.

Do average users really need to know that? In order to send emails, use Facebook and what-not?

[Kirkburn]

Why change something after so many years? People need to learn computers work on the base2 structure and not base10.

The issue is that the unit terminology is wrong. k, M, etc. are specifically "thousands". It's been used incorrectly in computing.

That's why there is the KiB, MiB terminology for "1,024" systems.

[Minchino]

Opposing this is silly, why stick with a confusing, archaic system (like the US hanging on to imperial measurements) when a sensible alternative was standardised a decade ago! Whilst you may be able to tell the difference between 1kB and 1KB, this breaks down for megabytes/mebibytes and all units above. It is simply confusing trying to decipher units of measurements and can introduce huge miscalculations.

For usability perhaps Ubuntu should display both, and educate its users if they don't understand, rather than dumb down for them.

Stone is used in the UK, but yeah. They tried to switch us over in the 70s and we told them to go jump off a cliff.

Well officially we use the metric system, all weights in supermarkets etc. are metric.

[Syanide]

The only thing about this change that might get a few seconds my of brain activity is that I will no longer feel cheated by the hard drive manufacturers.

[Kirkburn]

Stone is used in the UK, but yeah. They tried to switch us over in the 70s and we told them to go jump off a cliff.

No "we" didn't. Schools have taught primarily metric for decades. Our money was switched to decimal (basically metric) in the very decade you speak of.

Stone is just used for convenience, mainly because older people grew up with it and continue to use it.

[Kreuger]

Not something that will largely affect me. Frankly I dont care. With harddrives in the TB range and probably larger coming in the next few years, should we really complain over a few bytes (giga, kilo, mega, whatever)?