Do we need default home directory folders?

[tehkain]

I have been thinking about this for a while now. I do not look to copy implementations from other OSes but when they are right - they are right. One thing I have noticed that is missing in ubuntu is a default set of folders within your home directory. OS-X has the Movies, documents, pictures, and music folders. Windows has the My Pictures folders(and others). I can easily create these folders but I think ubuntu would do well to create a few by default.

When a new user goes to save an item he can select the directory and not have to create a directory. Having these basic folders upon install allows super new people to better organized and less cluttered.

Another thing I would like is smart folders. Like the Trash: folder but for Music or Images. So when you enter the image folder a new bar pops down with a button to start a slideshow or something like that. Or the Document folder would have a special document viewer inside of nautilus. Is there any implementation like this in the linux world?

[Tomosaur]

I have been thinking about this for a while now. I do not look to copy implementations from other OSes but when they are right - they are right. One thing I have noticed that is missing in ubuntu is a default set of folders within your home directory. OS-X has the Movies, documents, pictures, and music folders. Windows has the My Pictures folders(and others). I can easily create these folders but I think ubuntu would do well to create a few by default.

When a new user goes to save an item he can select the directory and not have to create a directory. Having these basic folders upon install allows super new people to better organized and less cluttered.

Another thing I would like is smart folders. Like the Trash: folder but for Music or Images. So when you enter the image folder a new bar pops down with a button to start a slideshow or something like that. Or the Document folder would have a special document viewer inside of nautilus. Is there any implementation like this in the linux world?

I personally just make my own folders - documents, music, programs (that I don't want to install system wide) etc. While I'm not objected to the idea, I just think people will end up organising things however they feel like anyway.

I definately agree with the 'smart folders' idea though, it'd be a great feature.

[flowingfire]

You know, I created a "My Documents" folder in my home directory. Do you know what Feisty did? I'm not sure of this was the work of the Feisty gods or the work of Wine or what... But it automatically created "My Photos" "My Music" and other such folders.

Hmm..... Where did these come from oh mighty Ubuntu?!!! Where! oh WhERE?

[Tomosaur]

You know, I created a "My Documents" folder in my home directory. Do you know what Feisty did? I'm not sure of this was the work of the Feisty gods or the work of Wine or what... But it automatically created "My Photos" "My Music" and other such folders.

Hmm..... Where did these come from oh mighty Ubuntu?!!! Where! oh WhERE?

If you installed Ubuntu over Windows - it has the ability to migrate your 'My Documents' folders from Windows.

[bastiegast]

I personally just make my own folders - documents, music, programs (that I don't want to install system wide) etc. While I'm not objected to the idea, I just think people will end up organising things however they feel like anyway.

I definately agree with the 'smart folders' idea though, it'd be a great feature.

That's not the point, you can always organize your files the way you want, but its just easy when saving files when there's a default set of folders you can select from the left(like home folder and disk drives now).

[Tomosaur]

That's not the point, you can always organize your files the way you want, but its just easy when saving files when there's a default set of folders you can select from the left(like home folder and disk drives now).

I wasn't making a 'point', I was just saying - I don't think it's something we should worry about, since most people will do whatever they feel like anyway. The normal 'My Documents' directories in Windows don't provide everything I need, and don't meet the structure that I like to use. The home directory is already akin to the 'My Documents' directory, and from there its just up to the user.

In any case, like I said, I'm not objecting to it - but the likelihood is that I'll just wipe the 'default' setup anyway and create my own, which is suited to my own needs.

[pmj]

I can't imagine that those media folders serve the needs of anyone, except perhaps places to temporarily dump things you save from your web browser and so on. As soon as you have more than a hundred files you really can't use the media folders anymore.

Also, I have a feeling that Nautilus will never support the smart folders thing. Not only would it be doing the job of other applications (image viewer etc), but Nautilus is too slow and bloated already, and development seems to move at a snail's pace.

[bastiegast]

I would use them, I used the documents folder on back on SuSe, I have a documents folder in my home dir and would love to be able to select it from the menu from the left(which undoubtly is possible now but requires tweaking). I know lots of friends who use the my pictures and my videos folders.

So they serve need for me and probably others too.

[tageiru]

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs

Fedora is using it and I expect Ubuntu to follow.

[Dragonbite]

If I have a category I want usable by everybody on the system, I make a directory off of the /home/ directory (such as /home/music/) and symlink it into my Home directory.

Otherwise, I just make them myself, usually without the "My " because the space messes things up a little when using the command line ... I keep forgetting to put " " around the directory name.

At the same time, if I want to save all of my files, I back up /home/* and it gives me everything from all users.