this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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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".

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[–] WagnasT@piefed.world 158 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

Y'all don't just do everything out of your Downloads folder?

[–] albbi@piefed.ca 76 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

~ is kinda hard to reach. I just put everything in root so I just have to type / once to find everything.

/s

[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 35 points 2 weeks ago

Oh cool I'll also start using "/s" folder

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 27 points 2 weeks ago

Everything is just in /. I patched directory support out of ext4.

[–] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 20 points 2 weeks ago

Documents for me, but yeah

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

My wife's Windows 10 desktop can fit one more icon. Just need to overlap a few others here and there.

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[–] StrawberryPigtails@discuss.tchncs.de 67 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I like this idea. I've been doing pretty much the same thing for a while now, though it's been a subdirectory of Documents.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 50 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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 17 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

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.space 9 points 2 weeks 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.

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[–] promitheas@programming.dev 53 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

Everyone complaining, and here I am not having noticed the change because I've created that directory for myself years ago :-P

Personally its for organisation

[–] naught101@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What do you put in it? For me the logical place for that would be ~/Documents/projects

[–] promitheas@programming.dev 18 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

All my projects, which to be fair are mostly programming.

~/Documents/Projects doesn't make sense to me because theyre not strictly documents. In documents i have - well, documents like bill receipts, forms ive filled in, etc...

My projects are a first-order thing for me if that makes sense, so it makes sense to have them in the top-level of my home.

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[–] tensorpudding@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

I do the same, source code lives in it.

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[–] DishaweslemOride@lemmy.org 44 points 2 weeks ago (11 children)

I’ve always had a projects folder, so this works for me I guess.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Same, I picked it up from some random user I was watching.

It may as well be called 'git folder' because it's almost exclusively used to clone 'hmm, neat' github repos and for my various 'to do' projects where I've gotten as far as running git init.

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[–] DisgruntledGorillaGang@reddthat.com 32 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Its amazing how bothered people are by a fucking folder 😂

[–] Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

A whopping 2KB of unwanted bloat.

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[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Forcing their facist file structure on is is literally wors than windows!

/s

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[–] Mihies@programming.dev 25 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

But why are the names ~~camel~~ Pascal cased? It's a little bit more annoying to type.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Seconded, I hate that every file is all lowercase but my home directory if filled with Downloads, Videos, Documents, etc...

[–] hallettj@leminal.space 15 points 2 weeks ago

You can customize the names with a ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs file. That will work on XDG-compliant programs. instructions

[–] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

cd downloads

nO sUcH FiLe oR DiReCtoRy

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[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Because any normal person would want it upper cased. Most people never type these folder names.

Yes, Linux should appeal to the masses, otherwise we will never get rid of Windows. No, this doesn't apply to anyone on Lemmy cause nobody on Lemmy right now truly qualify as "normal person", statistically speaking.

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[–] CoryCoolguy@lemmy.myserv.one 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yours are camel case? That's weird. My folders are pascal case.

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[–] fahfahfahfah@lemmy.billiam.net 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] albbi@piefed.ca 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Appeals to Java programmers too.

[–] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today 10 points 2 weeks ago

So does self-flagellation, but we don't provide default whips in the Kernel.

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[–] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago (10 children)

Honestly I say just let the user decide what goes in their home directory. I always get annoyed at all the random garbage in there. There should be a specific place that is user owned that isn't filled with cruft and configuration files

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[–] graynk@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Ahh, I was wondering why there's a Projects next to my projects, I thought I just made a typo at some point

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

Hah, thats funny, I... literally have a 'Projects' folder, though I'm running Bazzite.

hoists suspenders

Yep, made that folder on my own, gets the job done, mhrm.

... lol

(pleasedonotlookinsidetheProjectsfolderdeargoditissuchamess)

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[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 19 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

Now make all of default XDG directories lowercase. Nothing else is capitalized in the file system - why do these directories get an exception?

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[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

It's pretty much the first folder I add on a fresh install, gotta keep that shit contained

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Those files all go in documents. Jesus, why are we doing it this way?

[–] bitfucker@programming.dev 18 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

You store git repo in your documents?!

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[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 weeks ago

No documents are for documents.

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[–] baronofclubs@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

Honestly I don't mind this at all.

When I start a Godot projects, putting the project into Documents makes very little sense to me.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Okay so next up is the Porn folder, right?!

[–] Jacob_Mandarin@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

That one was proposed but people were not able to agree on the name. Homework was the leading candidate when i last checked.

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[–] mr_pip@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

how about first getting programs to put dotfiles into the .config folder (opposed to .programname) instead of adding more folders that are inconsistent over distros for multiple years before the point of a default for IDEs and CAD programs can even be meaningfully made?

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[–] Peffse@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

I never even thought to check. Was Games not a default folder?

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The article should also mention the new XDG variable itself, please.

And also, the XDG people should've thought of a more flexible way, that allows unlimited custom icon-directory associations. Now, we have some file managers, that do it their own way, most don't allow custom directory icons.

[–] devfuuu@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

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...
[–] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 11 points 2 weeks ago

hide the templates folder that nobody knows what is it for, so it becomes .templates

I think the templates folder is for the "New File" items, I forget how it works but you can make custom new files similar to new Text File, Empty File, etc

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