ubuntu working on thin client cannot provide accurate disk space reports

Question

We are using thin client systems in our work environment. There is a central ubuntu server and by using thin clients, we are connecting to our homes. The problem is when I try to install an application, it reported me that I had 200 mb of disk space. But when i try to look from console, I see that /home folder has over 250 gb s of disk space. Even when I try to look from baobab, Disk Usage Analyzer in Ubuntu, i see that my home file system is full.

So what's the reason that I am receiving different kinds of disk space report from different sources? Our system admin here told me that some applications foolishly try to see the physical devices on the thin client and got confused as a result. Is this true?

Answer 1

Your admin may be right, though another (more likely) possibility is that your system has quota's enabled. In this case, most applications will see your home directory as having only as much free space as is available within your quota limit, though tools such as df will still report the full amount of free space on the device which contains your home directory.