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”.

    • naught101@lemmy.world
      4·
      3 months ago

      This is the way. Everything I created in folder in Documents. Everything I downloaded in downloads. Home should be otherwise empty, except for all the left-over dot-folders that old software leaves lying around.

  • promitheas@programming.dev
    401·
    3 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
        15·
        3 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
          2·
          3 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
      4·
      3 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.

  • graynk@discuss.tchncs.de
    19·
    3 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

  • thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world
    17·
    3 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

    • TheV2@programming.dev
      11·
      3 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
        2·
        3 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
          1·
          3 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.

  • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
    181·
    3 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?

      • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        Yeah I know and KDE ans Gnome both have settings for this but as I used to setup a lot of machines it was always frustrating that the default is uppercase and some idiots don’t actually read the XDG preferences and have default uppercase directories hard coded

        • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
          1·
          3 months ago

          Yup, and everythjng done twice or even trice. I’m a sucker for efficiency who had some time on hand then, so i have my own environmemt setup and XFCE runner now, with clearly separated do xorg-stuff in X, XFCE stuff in XFCE, etc.

      • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        8·
        3 months ago

        Yes, that is the reason to make them lowercase, so I don’t have to shift when using the terminal to access my most used directories.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    16·
    3 months ago

    Hah, thats funny, I… literally have a ‘Projects’ folder, though I’m running Bazzite.

    hoists suspenders

    Yep, made that folder on my own, gets the job done, mhrm.

    … lol

    (pleasedonotlookinsidetheProjectsfolderdeargoditissuchamess)

  • baronofclubs@lemmy.world
    12·
    3 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.

  • Caveman@lemmy.world
    11·
    3 months ago

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

  • loiakdsf@discuss.tchncs.de
    11·
    3 months ago

    how about first getting programs to put dotfiles into the .config folder (opposed to .programname) instead of adding more folders that are inconsistent over distros for multiple years before the point of a default for IDEs and CAD programs can even be meaningfully made?

    • daeraxa@programming.dev
      1·
      3 months ago

      Ugh yeah this is a real point of annoyance for me, we have the XDG basedir spec for a reason but everything just ignores it. I’d settle for even the config part, let alone state, data dirs and the rest. Just throw it all in home…

      • naught101@lemmy.world
        2·
        3 months ago

        Absolutely. Some under a work subfolder, some under various other sub-folder depending on what they contain.

      • lagoon8622@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        Ok if you keep your working copies in ~/Documents where do you keep your documents?

        Orthogonal: ~/Projects is a delusional name btw, everyone’s code should be in ~/Code

        Put your crafting/woodworking/metalworking blueprints and schematics and stuff in ~/Projects

  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
    9·
    3 months ago

    The article should also mention the new XDG variable itself, please.

    And also, the XDG people should’ve thought of a more flexible way, that allows unlimited custom icon-directory associations. Now, we have some file managers, that do it their own way, most don’t allow custom directory icons.