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”.

  • devfuuu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    33 minutes ago

    I always change the defaults to another place and to have another naming. Just camel casing those folders is already stupidly annoying. I guess one more silly one into another folder out of view.

    I already do the following:

    • media with images, music and videos inside
    • changes to small case for desktop and download
    • change documents to docs
    • create another folder called shares which I moved the public folder inside.
    • hide the templates folder that nobody knows what is it for, so it becomes .templates
    • no idea what the projects is supposed to be about, maybe I can map it to the already existing dev folder…
    • curbstickle@anarchist.nexusEnglish
      26·
      4 hours ago

      I made SO MANY directories under home that could have just been ~/Projects that I’m annoyed with myself for not doing something so simple.

      … I’ll be using the projects directory heavily going forward

      • andyburke@fedia.io
        4·
        2 hours ago

        As someone who has used ~/Projects for years and has syncing and other setup around it I am (very slightly) terrified this change could somehow fuck with me.

        Please let this just be a mkdir call that will fail.

        • hallettj@leminal.spaceEnglish
          2·
          58 minutes ago

          I also use a Projects folder. It looks like it probably won’t break anything. Apps might start putting stuff there by default, hopefully in sensible subdirectories. There’s a note in the article that you can create ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs to specify where you want files to go.

    • devfuuu@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      31 minutes ago

      Oh, that’s what I do, you just have to customize it. I have media with images, music and videos inside.

    • BananaTrifleViolin@piefed.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 hours ago

      And Music? But they’d still need subfolders to keep the content organised and then it begs the question why hide it all away a whole layer lower down from the Home folder?

    • nightmare786@leminal.spaceEnglish
      71·
      2 hours ago

      shouldn’t have even started imo. it’s hard for me to believe creating a projects folder is done often enough that people can’t just continue to make their own

  • wltr@discuss.tchncs.de
    53·
    3 hours ago

    Why? What would I want to have the folder for? I never had it with any OS I ran. It’s either in the documents, or I’d create my own directory with the name I want. I have different types of projects, so I’d prefer organising my directories myself.

    I wasn’t sure the fuck this directory keeps appearing in my home, kept removing it over and over again. Can I disable that?

    • insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      4·
      2 hours ago

      At least projects is an understandable purpose, I don’t use the Templates, Desktop and Public folders at all, and aside from desktop (which I know is a workflow thing that I don’t even use) I would need someone to explain them to me. I’m guessing public would be for a multi-user system, templates maybe for printing stuff (I do not).

      • hallettj@leminal.spaceEnglish
        1·
        30 minutes ago

        I think Templates is for cases where you make lots of documents that have the same starting structure. Like a letter head, or a spreadsheet you recreate every month. The starting structure can be saved in Templates so you can copy it ever time you need it. Maybe I’ll put a Nix flake template there instead of always copying from a recent project.

        Public might be for files that other users have read access to on a multi user system? Or maybe for network shares? Or a personal website? I’m not sure. Edit: I found a comment saying that Gnome file sharing uses Public.

      • OfCourseNot@fedia.io
        1·
        54 minutes ago

        Templates is super useful! You can make a copy of any file you put there in any other directory with right click > new. Some examples I usually have in my computers are ‘newFile’, ‘newTextFile.txt’ (just blank text files), ‘newTextDocument.odt’, ‘newSpreadsheet.ods’… but once you start you’ll find many more things to add like, if you’re a programmer or web dev you’ll put files with all the boilerplate already in them, if you design fashion you’ll put an image of a figure template to draw over (in your format of choice), you have to make monthly schedules? Throw a table/spreadsheet with the days, format, colours… already in it. Anything you find yourself repeating is a good candidate to go into your templates folder.

        • insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafeEnglish
          2·
          44 minutes ago

          Interesting. I guess I’m not that far along (sort of stalled now), and quite possibly may never really need that.

          Though for this one:

          Some examples I usually have in my computers are ‘newFile’, ‘newTextFile.txt’ (just blank text files)

          creating a blank file and renaming to .txt before editing seems good enough for me.

      • wltr@discuss.tchncs.de
        1·
        1 hour ago

        Templates are auto-used by some software, but I don’t understand why it’s not hidden. E.g. .templates or some .app/share/templates. As not many people would ever use it, and those who will would find the location easily.

        Desktop, I never used it, but I understand the workflow. I used it as a quick directory to send some files, which I could symlink. Some people use it. And some DEs show desktop files.

        Music and videos, I see no point. Not many people use them at all, and for me those were separate disks (which I never needed mounted in my home). Now, it’s all separate machines (for self-hosted media content and servers).

        I use only documents and downloads, and in general, that’s enough for me. Also I use some top level directories, and I name them myself. All my files are my projects, I see no point in having any other files in my home.

        I have a .hidden file to hide the rest.

        • insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafeEnglish
          1·
          40 minutes ago

          I do use music and video (Flash animations in video too), though yeah they have been moved to slower drives (because data, easier migration). I use XFCE but don’t use desktop icons.

    • wltr@discuss.tchncs.de
      8·
      3 hours ago

      Aha, it’s in the article:

      Don’t like the new Projects directory? Just delete it. The xdg-user-dirs utility will not try to create it again. The default location for this directory will be moved to your home directory.

      It recreates them for me.

      Power users, who want more control, can edit the ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs configuration file and modify it to control what goes where.

      This might help, I guess.