Patent ID: 7440980

Claim:
A method of operating a computer system comprising the steps of: generating a configuration file including identification of at least one software package that is to be accessible to the computer system; for each software package identified in the configuration file, selecting which software application files corresponding to the software package are accessible to the computer system based on information contained in the configuration file, wherein the identified attributes comprise two or more attributes selected from the group of attributes consisting of a location of at least one package repository on the real filesystem, a location of at least one software package on the real filesystem, where the software package is identified for access by the computer system through the custom filesystem, a location for a root directory at which the custom filesystem is to be mounted, and a location for a spill directory root that is to be used by the custom filesystem for storage of files modified using the computer system; mapping the selected software application files corresponding to a version of the software application to the custom filesystem, where the files for the selected version of the software application are contained in a real filesystem; and processing requests relating to the selected software applications using the custom filesystem prior to processing of the requests, if at all, using the real filesystem, wherein the custom filesystem is used to provide a user interface that is limited to presentation of virtual files corresponding to the selected software applications.