It may look like a small addition, but standardizing something many Linux users already do can improve workflows, application behavior, and even documentation over time.

If you are using a rolling release distro like Arch, you might have noticed that your home directory now has a new member, a new folder called “Projects”.

For as long as I remember, Linux has always had a set of default folders under the home directory. Usually they are Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos and Downloads. Templates, Desktop and Public folders are also there.

Now we have a new addition in the form of “Projects”.

  • AnimalsDream@slrpnk.netEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    I already make my own Projects folder. Does this mean programs are going to start being tuned to make changes to it? Leave my adhd folder alone plz.

  • thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 months ago

    Honestly I say just let the user decide what goes in their home directory. I always get annoyed at all the random garbage in there. There should be a specific place that is user owned that isn’t filled with cruft and configuration files

    • RamenJunkie@midwest.socialEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      Yeah, I have essentially never used these folders unless a program sticks something there by default (mostly pictures).

        • SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de
          0·
          6 months ago

          A thing I started doing years ago, to combat trashing to ~/Desktop or ~/Downloads:

          Set /tmp as your default download directory.

          At least for me, almost everything I download is just ephemeral and would collect dust

          Putting it there causes it to be cleaned up on the next reboot. No more piles of junk on the desktop (the virtual one at least. Don’t ask about my physical desktop)

          • Sneezycat@sopuli.xyz
            0·
            6 months ago

            That’s a good idea until you download a 10GB file and you wonder why you’re out of RAM :P

            I use /tmp as a temp folder for yt-dlp (it is faster than an HDD when adding metadata and subs to the video), and I’ve ran out of RAM before by downloading a video too big… Silly me, my laptop only has 8GB.

    • TheV2@programming.dev
      0·
      6 months ago

      The user does decide, XDG user directories are optional and configurable. Since they are already established, user-friendly distros / desktop environments already pre-install them.

      And what speaks against just using a new directory within your home directory as your “specific place that is user owned that isn’t filed with cruft and configuration files”?

      • thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world
        0·
        6 months ago

        It’s only optional and configurable if it’s respected. Which often times it’s not due to convention.

        And I do already actually, it’s just weird that I have to.

        It’s 100% one of those carry overs from earlier days of computing and Linux not having great standards only great conventions. Like /bin vs /usr/bin

        • TheV2@programming.dev
          0·
          6 months ago

          Could you elaborate how the configuration might not be respected? Do you mean that you’ve often encountered applications that save files to hard-coded paths and do not even let you change the destination path?

          If you ask me, that’s just bad software design. If the software is open-source, there is the option to request the developers to read the actual path of the respective well know directory from the XDG environment variables or allow configuration.

  • bigmamoth@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 months ago

    Fuuuuuuuck

    Tbh not a bad idea but I have nightmare about windows and their 3d models folder that they put everywhere

  • Caveman@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 months ago

    It’s pretty much the first folder I add on a fresh install, gotta keep that shit contained

  • graynk@discuss.tchncs.dedeleted by creator
    0·
    6 months ago

    Ahh, I was wondering why there’s a Projects next to my projects, I thought I just made a typo at some point

  • jcr@jlai.luFrançais
    0·
    6 months ago

    Even if I am against this kind of “defaults”, today I learned how you customize this for any folder in the home directory !

    For linux based system, you do like told in https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs/

    ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs specifies the current set of directories for the user. This file can also be modified by users (manually or via applications) to change the directories used. Note: To disable a directory, point it to the homedir. If you delete it it will be recreated on the next login.

    So at last I disabled Music, Templates, Pictures and Videos . Cleaner Home !

  • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Now make all of default XDG directories lowercase. Nothing else is capitalized in the file system - why do these directories get an exception?

  • promitheas@programming.dev
    0·
    6 months ago

    Everyone complaining, and here I am not having noticed the change because I’ve created that directory for myself years ago :-P

    Personally its for organisation

      • promitheas@programming.dev
        0·
        6 months ago

        All my projects, which to be fair are mostly programming.

        ~/Documents/Projects doesn’t make sense to me because theyre not strictly documents. In documents i have - well, documents like bill receipts, forms ive filled in, etc…

        My projects are a first-order thing for me if that makes sense, so it makes sense to have them in the top-level of my home.

        • naught101@lemmy.world
          0·
          6 months ago

          Right, for me “documents” is just “personal files”. I used to have it called that, but then I just had and empty dir sitting there unused…

          I don’t like putting things in home because then files get mixed up with config and cache and crap, and it’s more annoying to search

    • ikidd@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      6 months ago

      Luckily I created mine as projects so I don’t have to worry about it writing a bunch of shit into my actual projects folder, or having to fix the xdg setting to disable it.

  • baronofclubs@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 months ago

    Honestly I don’t mind this at all.

    When I start a Godot projects, putting the project into Documents makes very little sense to me.