- Home folder litter is one of my top pet peeves in computing. In fact it's the only reason why I refuse to use snaps on Ubuntu. I don't even care about whatever technical stuff everyone argues about - but snaps create a permanent `~/snap/` directory and Ubuntu devs don't care. There's been a bug report on Launchpad for over a decade[1] and it's the second highest voted bug in Ubuntu history, but no, Ubuntu devs think littering the home folder with highly visible system-level machinery is totally unavoidable.
It's like putting your car's engine in the passenger seat - rude, intolerable, and plain stupid. What if Grandma was browsing her home folder and deleted `~/snap/` because she has no idea what it is?
[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/snapd/+bug/1575053
- You can skip inotify tools altogether and do use systemd like this to trigger `rm -rf`:
`~/.config/systemd/user/remove-thunderbird-dir.path`
[Unit]
Description=Watch for unwanted ~/thunderbird directory
[Path]
PathExists=%h/thunderbird
Unit=remove-thunderbird-dir.service
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
- I've long given up on keeping a clean home folder because so many software do this and keeping it clean is a constant chore. Now I just make a real_home folder in my 'home' and put all my actual stuff there.
They can use the ~ landfill
by aniceperson
0 subcomment
- > Systemd user services need absolute paths
no, you use the specifiwr %h instead of ~
here is the expensive list of specifiers
https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/syst...
- There's more! On my machine it creates an empty ~/.mozilla/extensions directory every time it starts, and I have no idea why it does that or how to make it stop.
by sam_lowry_
2 subcomments
- Most of the time, you can control where XDG puts its litter, cf. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XDG_user_directories
Just note that XDG_DESKTOP_DIR and XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR can not point to the same directory or chromium will disregard your config.
P.S. Reader, if you can commit to chromium without much hassle, check this and fix: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Talk:XDG_user_directories
- You're lucky you only get one. I get two, `~/thunderbird/` and `~/Thunderbird/`
- Reminds me of this other post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48447935), which suggests the following solution:
If you create your own `~/thunderbird` directory, then Thunderbird will stop littering your home directory.
- Try Betterbird. On the whole I find that fork a better experience than Thunderbird.
by the__alchemist
5 subcomments
- There are so many annoyances in TB. I stopped using it after a few days. My primary concerns:
- Opening an email thread opens multiple (potentially many) tabs, and is difficult to nagivate or understand the flow of messages
- I don't know how to write an email without it making the spacing between paragraphs/lines larger than I would like. (I.e. double-spacing)
- Search is unreliable / broken.
- The other day moved the Thunderbird folder profile to another PC, the password was not saved, and I ignored the password pop up a few times, then it started deleting the inbox emails
And it is not the first time it feels unreliable
I would like to think there is a good and reliable open source email client
by create_accounts
0 subcomment
- I cant stand apps littering my home folder, regardless of if they are invisible folders or whatever. I am looking forward to deleting my operating system, or just the user account, and only installing apps in a virtual machine
- Personally I have never been bothered by programs using my home folder. I don’t regularly ls the contents of it, and just browse by path from my shell anyway, so the clutter is barely visible to me
by Grombobulous
1 subcomments
- If you don’t have any need for Windows/Mac support, I highly recommend moving to something that isn’t Thunderbird.
My pick is Evolution but there are many other options.
- At this point, atleast every major package should follow XDG specs
- Is there any hope that Thunderbird might benefit from XDG config directories fix that Firefox recently implemented?
- Another unit that requires mental load.
by hungryhobbit
1 subcomments
- Seems like with Claude you could have submitted a PR (to actually fix the issue) in the time it took to come up with the hack.
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