diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 580a9c0..2622276 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ clean:
 
 install:
 	$(PYTHON) setup.py build
-	$(PYTHON) setup.py develop
+	$(PYTHON) setup.py develop --user
 
 test: install
 	$(PYTHON) $(TSCRIPT)
diff --git a/fs/mountfs.py b/fs/mountfs.py
index 860cdc4..5dde803 100644
--- a/fs/mountfs.py
+++ b/fs/mountfs.py
@@ -111,6 +111,14 @@ def _delegate(self, path):
             else:
                 head_path = prefix
                 tail_path = path[len(head_path):]
+                if tail_path == '':
+                    # XXX - GIAMPAOLO: I did this because pyfs methods (
+                    # makedir, listdir etc.) treat "" as an alias for "/",
+                    # which is stupid. We don't want to inherit this
+                    # assumption in our code and fill it with
+                    # "if path == '': path = '/'" all over the place
+                    # so we do it here.
+                    tail_path = '/'
 
         if type(object) is MountFS.DirMount:
             return object.fs, head_path, tail_path
diff --git a/fs/tests/__init__.py b/fs/tests/__init__.py
index 4227ddc..4c86cf3 100644
--- a/fs/tests/__init__.py
+++ b/fs/tests/__init__.py
@@ -83,10 +83,9 @@ def test_meta(self):
                 self.assertFalse(self.fs.hasmeta(meta_name))
 
     def test_root_dir(self):
-        self.assertTrue(self.fs.isdir(""))
         self.assertTrue(self.fs.isdir("/"))
         # These may be false (e.g. empty dict) but mustn't raise errors
-        self.fs.getinfo("")
+        self.fs.getinfo("/")
         self.assertTrue(self.fs.getinfo("/") is not None)
 
     def test_getsyspath(self):
@@ -218,7 +217,7 @@ def check_unicode(items):
         self.assertEqual(len(d1), 4)
         self.assertEqual(sorted(d1), [u"a", u"b", u"bar", u"foo"])
         check_unicode(d1)
-        d1 = self.fs.listdir("")
+        d1 = self.fs.listdir("/")
         self.assertEqual(len(d1), 4)
         self.assertEqual(sorted(d1), [u"a", u"b", u"bar", u"foo"])
         check_unicode(d1)
@@ -283,7 +282,7 @@ def check_equal(items, target):
         self.assertEqual(len(d1), 4)
         check_equal(d1, [u"a", u"b", u"bar", u"foo"])
         check_unicode(d1)
-        d1 = self.fs.listdirinfo("")
+        d1 = self.fs.listdirinfo("/")
         self.assertEqual(len(d1), 4)
         check_equal(d1, [u"a", u"b", u"bar", u"foo"])
         check_unicode(d1)
diff --git a/fs/wrapfs/__init__.py b/fs/wrapfs/__init__.py
index 023816c..1ee6831 100644
--- a/fs/wrapfs/__init__.py
+++ b/fs/wrapfs/__init__.py
@@ -188,7 +188,8 @@ def isfile(self, path):
         return self.wrapped_fs.isfile(self._encode(path))
 
     @rewrite_errors
-    def listdir(self, path="", wildcard=None, full=False, absolute=False, dirs_only=False, files_only=False):
+    def listdir(self, path="/", wildcard=None, full=False, absolute=False,
+                dirs_only=False, files_only=False):
         kwds = dict(wildcard=wildcard,
                     full=full,
                     absolute=absolute,
@@ -242,7 +243,7 @@ def ilistdir(self, path="", wildcard=None, full=False, absolute=False, dirs_only
             yield e
 
     @rewrite_errors
-    def listdirinfo(self, path="", wildcard=None, full=False, absolute=False, dirs_only=False, files_only=False):
+    def listdirinfo(self, path="/", wildcard=None, full=False, absolute=False, dirs_only=False, files_only=False):
         kwds = dict(wildcard=wildcard,
                     full=full,
                     absolute=absolute,
diff --git a/fs/wrapfs/hidefs.py b/fs/wrapfs/hidefs.py
index c0adf32..3aef0be 100644
--- a/fs/wrapfs/hidefs.py
+++ b/fs/wrapfs/hidefs.py
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ def exists(self, path):
             return False
         return super(HideFS, self).exists(path)
 
-    def listdir(self, path="", *args, **kwargs):
+    def listdir(self, path="/", *args, **kwargs):
         entries = super(HideFS, self).listdir(path, *args, **kwargs)
         entries = [entry for entry in entries if not self._should_hide(entry)]
         return entries