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I have been using windows for a long time. And now I have moved on to ubuntu (13.04). I am just 2 to 3 weeks old for ubuntu. I don't understand about the directories like /var , /home, /media etc. . . Can somebody relate all the ubuntu directories to windows directories. That might be so easy for a beginner like me to understand. To be more precise, I don't even know which directory behaves like C: and which one behaves like D: or E: or others. I don't know where to save which kind of docs.

Ramvignesh
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3 Answers3

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Tree

This picture is worth 1,000 words. The "problem" is that there is no standard used by all distros, and thus each distro makes (minor) variations. For example, while Debian and Ubuntu use /usr/local , other distros use /opt (for installation of packages compiled from source or outside the package management system [apt on ubuntu] ).

BUT - that is the old standard. The new standard is 3.0, see

https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_3.0/fhs-3.0.html

Some of the highlights:

The source is now valid DocBook XML, with the appropriate tool changes.

New directories, including /run and /sys.

Removal of older compatibility directories, such as /usr/X11R6.

Many typos fixed, and clarifications made to ambiguous sections.

Various distros are in various stages in implementing the new standard.

orzechow
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Panther
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  • /var - where logs and stuff are stored

  • /home - where the user's files are stored - Windows equivalents \Users\<username> or \Documents and Settings\<username>

  • /media (or /run/media on some systems, i think used to be /mnt or something) - where devices such as USB sticks are usually mounted - the directories within can be the equivalent of D:\, E:\ etc. Windows assigns a letter to each partition and the file manager uses that, whilst Linux use device names (e.g. /dev/sdb1) and mountpoints (e.g. /media/my-memory-stick)

  • / the root of the filesystem - equivalent of C:\ on Windows.

See also:

Wilf
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It's worth noting, in addition to the other answers, that:

  • /usr/bin is a bit like C:\Program Files (stores programs, with the difference that /usr/bin has just binaries of programs while C:\Program Files has folders containing binaries and other files.

  • /home is almost exactly like C:\Users - every user gets a home directory like /home/ramvignesh. Inside this home directory, for each user, there are Pictures, Downloads, Documents, Desktop folders like in Windows.

  • /bin is not unlike C:\Windows in that it contains many of core files of the operating system. It isn't the only folder that does, though.