SubscribeThe Case Against Unix
One thing which will keep Unix desktops from the masses is the fact the Unix file systems are case sensitive.
Why would anyone need readme.htm, Readme.htm, README.htm, ReadMe.htm, ReAdMe.htm, readme.HTM etc to be unique files within the same folder?
And if a Web site is hosted on a UNIX box, you get a whole lot of contradictions.
For example, http://www.werelocate.com/index.html is valid, but http://www.werelocate.com/Index.html is not (capital I in Index), since the file “Index.html” does not exist, only index.html does. Now http://www.werelocate.Com/index.html is valid, since domain names are not case sensitive thankfully (the C in com is a capital). Good luck explaining the difference to grandpa!
Whether it was by design, intentionally or otherwise, thankfully good old DOS just didn’t care. No matter which way you said readme.htm, it would match whatever casing was present.
I just got burnt by a Unix box hosting a web site which dynamically created script to load a javascript file. The same files work on Windows Server, but failed on Unix. All due to casing. Arrrrrrr.
Casing should only be important in sentences!
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Mac OS X is basically Unix, and it runs on top of a case-insensitive file systems. It Just Works.
Of course, you can run OS X on top of a traditional case sensitive file system if you like. It Just Works too.
Unix and case-sensitivity do not go hand in hand.
And of course, any web server can be configured to accept URI’s in a case-insensitive manner.