I'm not sure I really understand why the units policy is so strange --
file sizes have always been reported on pretty much any OS I can think
of as base-2 even when using SI units (wrongly).

To now go to changing to base-10 just to use the SI units correctly
seems wrong -- why not simply update the MB to MiB, and etc? That way,
everything, from RAM sizes, to file sizes, will use the same familiar
general sizes, and the units are updated to be correct, and more
importantly, educational.

So what if hard drive manufacturers use base-10 units? No OS ever has,
and to change it to avoid confusion is solving the wrong problem, imo.
We should fix the units and presentation, not create even more
inconsistency -- I love that command line tools get an exemption in the
units policy, and now CD media may too.

If we are aiming for less confusion, creating even more inconsistency
makes no sense. Why not do something more simple and more logical --
pick the binary measurements that have been in use for decades (hence
the cli exemption), and update the SI units to IEC units /everywhere/.

Just my two cents, even though I doubt we will see any change on the
units policy, even though it has clearly not been thought through to be
logical.

Also, I am disappointed to see that Mac OS X has gone to SI units for
reporting hard drive sizes as well, although I suspect from their KB
article that they still report file sizes using base-2 and using SI
units. More inconsistency, yet the units policy actually references this
wrongheaded approach.

-- 
Lucid reads file size wrong
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/538165
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