Whats Wrong with the popular VFS implementations, then?
You would be right to ask this question, given that I’ve just explained how useful a VFS can be. The answer comes down to how the VFS subsystems that are in use have been implemented, rather than the principles behind them. Have you ever accessed an FTP site via Nautilus (your home directory on a server, for example) and wondered why you can’t move files you own to the Wastebasket (instead you have to delete them directly), or see the same types of information in the properties dialogue box as you do for files that live on your desktop machine? How about being told that OpenOffice.org can’t open a file on an SSH share you mounted, despite GNOME/Nautilus being able to see it? Why can Totem play files from a remote music library but XMMS can’t? Some of the answers to these questions are “because the underlying file service can’t support X, Y or Z”, however, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, users are left wondering why they can’t open a file that, to them, clearly exists right in fr
