this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
645 points (98.6% liked)
Linux
48247 readers
713 users here now
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.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
We have oodles of counterexamples to this. GIMP did it, Blender did it, DOSBox did it, Libreoffice did it, Skype did it, Wireshark did it, ad nauseum. It's not really as big a deal as you make it to be (or a big deal at all). You have a transitional period where you look for config files in both locations, and mark the old location as obsolete.
It's a big deal to developers who were inconsiderate enough to do it in the first place. To do it in a non-breaking, non-confusing way requires slightly more care than doing it correctly to begin with. Hence why your $HOME is still a giant mess.
I mean if the code is well written it shouldn't be hard in the first place. You likely have a sinlge code var for the config path already so instead of hardcoding it to be in $HOME make it check if the file is in XDG_Config, if not check if it's in $HOME. If the file is in neither of these it does not exist -> create a new one in XDG_Config. If it does exist in $HOME -> Move it to XDG_Config.