Accessing removable media

As mentioned earlier in the book, the lack of drive lettering is one of the most difficult thought habits for Windows users to leave behind in the Linux world. In Windows, drive letters are ingrained into the culture. A typical Windows user may associate the A drive with floppy disks, the C drive with local OS storage, and the D drive with optical media. Flash drives are typically given the first available drive letter when inserted. A user would open My Computer (or more recently, simply Computer), and the flash drive or optical media will be listed there for access.

In Linux, removable media is handled very differently from the Windows platform. The insertion and access of removable media in Linux is mostly the same as Windows. Once a flash drive or optical media is inserted, the user is either shown the contents straight away or given a prompt to allow the individual to choose what he or she would like to do as a result of inserting the media. In most cases, once...