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I don't know anyone, other than a few tech-ignorant people who put everything on the desktop, who doesn't use them. Where else would you put stuff like music, p

I don't know anyone, other than a few tech-ignorant people who put everything on the desktop, who doesn't use them. Where else would you put stuff like music, pictures, documents, etc? These different types of files usually call for different hierarchies, so you've got to do something. What do you do instead?

Beltalowda 4y ago
A lot of people running more "minimalistic" window managers like i3 or dwm or whatnot don't really have a "desktop" like Windows, macOS, GNOME, KDE, etc. have, and everything tends to just go in ~, or some subdirectory of that.
MichaelCollins 4y ago
>These different types of files usually call for different hierarchies I organize my files by subject, not file type. My files about space stuff go in a directory called 'space'. Files about the space shuttle go in space/shuttle. This directory contains any sort of file related to the space shuttle, be it picture, video, pdf, epub, or otherwise. I don't see any utility in breaking this directory apart into ~/Pictures/shuttle, ~/Videos/shuttle, ~/Documents/shuttle... Do you really do something like that? How far do you take this "different files, different hierarchies" principle? Do pdfs and docx go in two different hierarchies too? Are pngs and jpegs separated? What's your criteria for deciding when different sorts of files get different hierarchies?
- bscphil 4y ago
  What I do is probably more similar to you than you realize. I'm not categorically placing all images in ~/Pictures, rather I'm using that directory primarily for pictures that I've taken. Each photo taking session gets its own sub-directory with the ISO 8601 date followed by a description of the event. This is extremely convenient because software I use (like raw image developers) automatically knows to look in ~/Pictures and I can access my files right away. Likewise, I'm not using ~/Documents just for stuff with an .odt or .pdf extension. Rather, any sort of human-readable text based file goes there. I have some markdown files that have embedded images, and of course the .png or .svg files exist alongside them in the relevant directories. ~/Music is probably the best example of why the default XDG approach makes sense. You can place everything in an Artist/Album hierarchy, and most music software is written to automatically pick up and scan these directories to keep their internal libraries in sync. There's no fuss. I don't limit myself to just the XDG directories when there's not a close fit; i also have a ~/Projects for various things I've made and ~/Programs for statically built programs that can't be installed, and so on. Basically, I've found that the XDG approach does a pretty good job of splitting up files by purpose, allowing you to compartmentalize by avoiding having too many directories at the top level of the hierarchy.
GauntletWizard 4y ago
You don't know a lot of people, then - Most people, the vast majority, are tech ignorant that way. The concept that files are cross-compatible, and usable outside the app that created them, is increasingly foreign to an online app oriented world.
- bscphil 4y ago
  My point is that that sort of person is not organizing their files at all. They're not refusing the Linux/Windows/Mac hierarchy and choosing a different one consciously, they just don't understand that the hierarchy even exists.
llanowarelves 4y ago
As an aside, the desktop is a great place as a TODO-list / sticky note. Your stuff sitting there is so present and ugly, you will feel anxiety to get it sorted to a proper place. I am more likely to do something with those files than if they are hidden away in Downloads (which is like a tempdir), or on windows, some User/Documents subfolder somewhere.

Beltalowda 4y ago

A lot of people running more "minimalistic" window managers like i3 or dwm or whatnot don't really have a "desktop" like Windows, macOS, GNOME, KDE, etc. have, and everything tends to just go in ~, or some subdirectory of that.

MichaelCollins 4y ago

>These different types of files usually call for different hierarchies I organize my files by subject, not file type. My files about space stuff go in a directory called 'space'. Files about the space shuttle go in space/shuttle. This directory contains any sort of file related to the space shuttle, be it picture, video, pdf, epub, or otherwise. I don't see any utility in breaking this directory apart into ~/Pictures/shuttle, ~/Videos/shuttle, ~/Documents/shuttle... Do you really do something like that? How far do you take this "different files, different hierarchies" principle? Do pdfs and docx go in two different hierarchies too? Are pngs and jpegs separated? What's your criteria for deciding when different sorts of files get different hierarchies?

bscphil 4y ago
What I do is probably more similar to you than you realize. I'm not categorically placing all images in ~/Pictures, rather I'm using that directory primarily for pictures that I've taken. Each photo taking session gets its own sub-directory with the ISO 8601 date followed by a description of the event. This is extremely convenient because software I use (like raw image developers) automatically knows to look in ~/Pictures and I can access my files right away. Likewise, I'm not using ~/Documents just for stuff with an .odt or .pdf extension. Rather, any sort of human-readable text based file goes there. I have some markdown files that have embedded images, and of course the .png or .svg files exist alongside them in the relevant directories. ~/Music is probably the best example of why the default XDG approach makes sense. You can place everything in an Artist/Album hierarchy, and most music software is written to automatically pick up and scan these directories to keep their internal libraries in sync. There's no fuss. I don't limit myself to just the XDG directories when there's not a close fit; i also have a ~/Projects for various things I've made and ~/Programs for statically built programs that can't be installed, and so on. Basically, I've found that the XDG approach does a pretty good job of splitting up files by purpose, allowing you to compartmentalize by avoiding having too many directories at the top level of the hierarchy.

GauntletWizard 4y ago

You don't know a lot of people, then - Most people, the vast majority, are tech ignorant that way. The concept that files are cross-compatible, and usable outside the app that created them, is increasingly foreign to an online app oriented world.

bscphil 4y ago
My point is that that sort of person is not organizing their files at all. They're not refusing the Linux/Windows/Mac hierarchy and choosing a different one consciously, they just don't understand that the hierarchy even exists.

llanowarelves 4y ago

As an aside, the desktop is a great place as a TODO-list / sticky note. Your stuff sitting there is so present and ugly, you will feel anxiety to get it sorted to a proper place. I am more likely to do something with those files than if they are hidden away in Downloads (which is like a tempdir), or on windows, some User/Documents subfolder somewhere.