Re: [Comm-en] What do you use to mount USB devices in WindowMaker

[Michael Shigorin <mike@altlinux.org>]

On Tue, Jan 04, 2022 at 04:04:58AM +0000, David wrote:
> So, my question to all WindowMaker users here is: do you use
> anything special to handle USB devices, or do you do your own
> configurations with /etc/fstab?

Used to use subfs and autofs but now mostly just issuing "mount"
for the last ten years or so -- a shortcut to run xterm is one of
the first things to arrange on systems "inhabited" by me anyways;
I've even disabled automounting on a MATE based system I use at
work for OS development (it's not quite easy to programmatically
predict that I'm planning to overwrite a DVDRW or USB Flash
medium right upon its detection but stealing another half
a minute of my life through "friendly" automounting attempt
that I'll rollback ASAP anyways).

> If there is a WindowMaker utility that makes it easier to
> handle USB devices, please share your recommendations with me.

There's wmvolman written by another WM user in ALT Linux Team
some 15 years ago (it's also in Fedora and AUR); a quick check
on my WM laptop shows it should be enough to install the package,
run the applet and click the "-/ /-" button to mount/umount the
media attached.

Maybe we should include it into gnustep/wmaker starterkit. :-)

PS: you might also want a file manager like pcmanfm/pcmanfm-qt
(I prefer zsh ever since its discovery but there are use cases
where a GUI file manager does better, like sorting photos).

PPS: there's an article "on the harm of the friendly interfaces"
written by Victor Wagner some 20 years ago or so (in Russian);
some of us might find it thoughtful these days too:
http://wagner.pp.ru/~vitus/articles/user-friendly.html;
I found Yandex translation legible enough to relay it:
https://translate.yandex.ru/translate?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wagner.pp.ru%2F~vitus%2Farticles%2Fuser-friendly.html&lang=ru-en
(the funny bit being "friendly" term explanation and PATH/30
glitches; "thingy" would rather be "thingness", "being obsessed
with things')).  Suddenly realized that the article's
completely "politically incorrect" -- and thoroughly enjoyed
this particular case :-)

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