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by eviks 1179 days ago
Weird how this promotional article is weak re advice for the most popular OS (and personal experience isn't the only source of insight)
1 comments

> for the most popular OS

Android doesn't really do dot files. Or config files that the user can see at all.

(And if you'd like to amend to "the most used desktop OS", this is obviously aimed at unix-likes, but actually Windows does have an equivalent standard and programs targeting that platform really should be following it just like programs targeting unix-likes really should follow this)

Just like it's obvious what OS I meant, it's also obvious that the article's aim is not as narrow as you're trying to paint it, otherwise it wouldn't have a section on Windows. And the Mac section is also weak, so even that is not a good excuse; and Mac also has a standard, and it's best to ignore it if a user sets an XDG env var

Your advice re. Windows is also bad, for example, for a lot of x-platform tools I care more about x-platform consistency and would set the env var to the same ~/.config, e.g., it's much easier to do backup, and I don't care that there is some OS standard (which aren't great to be followed blindly)

But even for non x-platform apps that Windows AppData defaults are a dumping ground for app data (not configs) I don't care about and don't need to backup or anything , so if there is an option to put some configs that are more important in a different folder, that's better

> otherwise it wouldn't have a section on Windows. And the Mac section is also weak

The Windows section stright-up says they don't really know what the situation is over there, and the macOS section says they couldn't find an official recommendation for non-GUI programs.

> Your advice re. Windows is also bad, for example, for a lot of x-platform tools I care more about x-platform consistency and would set the env var to the same ~/.config, e.g., it's much easier to do backup, and I don't care that there is some OS standard (which aren't great to be followed blindly)

If you just want to make your personal stuff do what you expect, then sure, by all means force everything to whatever you like, but that's not good general advice.

Your first point is just reiterating my criticism

> just want to make your personal stuff do what you expect

That's obviously not "just" what I want, so care to come up with an actual reason why moving from the OS dumping ground to a user's custom folder is not a good general advice?

Programs should default to following the platform convention. It's totally fine for a user to decide that they want to stick everything in ~/.config even on Windows, but it's inappropriate for programs to use that as a default.
I've asked you for an explanation re why following worse defaults is better, not a repetition