Linux directory structure: an explanation

If you are a long time Windows user you are probably familiar with the Documents and Settings, Program Files and Windows folders. When you use Linux, things look very different. 

I was going to write a short guide on the subject (but I don't understand everything and I did not want to simply copy & paste info here) so I found 3 good guides for you to read on the subject.

Ubuntu documentation

Linux Command

How to Geek

I will however, discuss the directory that I am the most familiar with. The home directory. When you open the home directory you see a directory with your username, it is similar to the 

C:\My Documents if you were using Windows 98

C:\Documents and Settings\Username if you were using Windows XP, or 

C:\Users\Username if you were using Windows 7

The home directory has sub directories:

Desktop 

Contains your desktop shortcuts

Documents

Make sub directories to fit your needs and save your Word & Excel (or Writer & Calc) and other documents here.

Downloads

The folder your web browser downloads to by default that you are supposed to sort regularly, but seldomly do (well, me at least). Files are meant to stay here short term. 

Music

Put your mp3, ogg, aac, wav, flac, aif (or whatever format you use for your music) files here.

Pictures

A place to save all those lovely tux wallpapers and lol cat pictures you have been collecting. Cut & paste them here from the Downloads directory now ;)

Also a good place for storing your photos from your digital camera, etc.

Public

Used for sharing files over a network. 

Templates

Save your templates files here. Lots of programs like LibreOffice, Scribus & Inkscape use templates.

Videos

Remember to make sub folders here, otherwise things can get a bit messy. 

As you can see the folder structure is self explanatory, and you should not have any trouble with it. Remember that it is dangerous to mess around in folders that you don't understand what they are there for.

Running Windows programs on Linux

I need to run a few Windows programs. Programs like Corel Draw or E-Sword do not have versions (that I know of) on Linux.

I have tried wine before, and after installing E-Sword and setting the resource folder (so that it could load the other Bibles, etc.) I was left with an empty window which was pretty much useless.

Enter PlayOnLinux you install the debian package, which installs wine and a few others things with it. I double clicked on the E-Sword install file and it worked. E-Sword installed and worked perfectly. Instead of installing each package, I copied the installed files from someone else's E-Sword installation folder (Windows PC) and copies them to my wine/e-sword folder.

Finding that folder was a different story as clicking on Menu > Wine > Browse C: does not work. Here is the location:

/home/tienie/.wine/dosdevices/c:/Program Files/e-Sword/

Substitute your username for tienie and you should have it. I can not tell you how happy I am to finally be able to use E-Sword in Linux. There are a few minor bugs, but at least it works, and it works well enough for me to get done what I need to do. Not being able to run E-Sword has been one of the key reasons I have formatted and re-installed Windows XP, now it is no longer necessary.

What are the Windows programs that you cannot live without?