this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2024
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Probably half the entries in that list are not GUI apps, and XDG doesn't apply (though some still support it). For some others there (like emacs) XDG is used if it exists.
XDG doesn't apply for CLI apps? About half of dirs I still have cluttering my home are GUI apps whose devs refuse to follow the specification, while I see less friction from CLI/TUI devs, since they're the ones actually seeing these hidden locations.
What makes you think XDG doesn't apply to non GUI apps?
It's already in the name - XDG stands for X Desktop Group (nowadays freedesktop), which works on interoperability for desktop environments. In a pure shell environment (or even if you're not running a full desktop) none of the XDG variables are defined, and especially in shell environments the default fallbacks specified by XDG are not necessarily what the operator would expect.
That name is decades old. XDG stands for "Cross Desktop Group".
A "pure" X environment (e.g.
startx xterm
) also doesn't define those variables, but many desktop environments do, just like many shell configurations do.