I believe the way you describe is the better way for users, but the problem seems to be about the .files littering the whole filesystem. Why not have a top-leve

I believe the way you describe is the better way for users, but the problem seems to be about the .files littering the whole filesystem. Why not have a top-level .hidden folder, where everything is put in, for any OS ? You'd have the OSX's .DS_Store, Windows' Thumbs.db, and whatever Linux-specific dot-file you can have. I kind of see a parallel with applications willing to put their stuff in ~/.myappconfig instead of the central ~/.config/myappconfig, and it bothers me as well.