Re: RFC: Common desktop-wide paths

[danilo gnome org (Danilo Šegan)]

Hi Tristan,

Today at 8:30, Tristan Buckmaster wrote:

> The home directory is the root of all things associated with the user.
>  This includes stuff like configuration files and application data. 
> This stuff shouldn't really be accessed directly by the user.  The
> desktop folder is a folder that the user is free to play around with
> and customise.

It's common that configuration files are hidden in $HOME, so this
point seems moot.  Gnome already supports using $HOME for Desktop.

We do not want user to know about "Desktop folder" or something.  If
they can technically write someplace (i.e. $HOME), they should better
know that (i.e. make $HOME be Desktop) or they'll blame mysterious
forces or the system once they screw something up.

In most cases I've seen, people tend to organize stuff relevant to
their $HOME, not their "Desktop".  We already have option of hiding
certain files (both using Unix way, or Nautilus way), what would
render them unavailable for most users.  Why replicate all the
functionality in Desktop, when we already have $HOME?

Of course, I'm not even close to any expert, so I understand that I
may be utterly wrong somehow, but this still seems a technicality to
me (implementation detail, keeping in mind that $HOME is already
there; of course, "Desktop" is used on other systems such as KDE, so
it's 1+ for it as well). 

Cheers,
Danilo