xdg-user-dirs – purpose?

[Thomas U. Grüttmüller]

Hello,

I could not find within the documentation of xdg-user-dirs anything 
about the *purpose* of these directories. For some dirs, their purpose 
is obvious, for others not.

            DESKTOP

*Some* file managers display this folder in the root window. Others, 
e.g. ROX, don’t.

            TEMPLATES

This looks very useful. You can put file templates there. Each of them 
will generate a menu item in the file manager like “New HTML file…”.

            DOWNLOAD

This folder is a dump where the web browser will put all sorts of 
downloaded files. After a short time there will be total chaos. :-(

            PUBLICSHARE

This looks interesting. Has it ever been implemented? It reminds me of 
the public_html folder found in older distributions.

            DOCUMENTS

The purpose is not obvious. Gimp uses it as a default to save pictures; 
Anki uses it to store its configuration files…

            MUSIC
            PICTURES
            VIDEOS

No program seems to use these folders. Their purpose is not obvious to me.

Greetings,
Thomas