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Why does firefox keeps using ~/.mozilla directory? (self.firefox)

submitted 1 year ago by sysadmin to c/[email protected]

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Even after all these years firefox keeps using mozilla hidden directory instead of XDG base directories. For how long will this continue?

Watch https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=259356 for updates to this request.

~/.mozilla/firefox/ is a mish-mash of data, config, and cache. It's not simple to unravel that. Beyond that, it would be a breaking change, and that requires more caution.

credit: u/yo_99 on Reddit.

original link: https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/vkgk78/why_does_firefox_keeps_using_mozilla_directory/

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Reminds me of when Windows made a designated folder for game saves.

And then every dev decided to keep placing saves in the Documents folder or AppData folder

[–] WhoRoger 3 points 1 year ago

The fun part is, at least since Win95, games were supposed to store their data in the My documents directory. The only game I remember actually going with this was Max Payne, everyone else was just dumping everything in the directory with the exe.

Then Vista came out and those who cared, were scrambling to update their games. The rest just went - shrug eh, run in compatibility mode.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Hell of a lot more useful than the 3d objects directory that they added in 10

[–] deleted 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I thought this was the best thing they did. Each user would have their documents (let call it your stuff) separate from another user.

If you share a PC with someone then you would know how this was a good thing.

Even if you don’t share your PC with anyone, you don’t want your nephew to miss up your saves when he comes in the summer and his mom wants you to allow him to play.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Windows's dedicated Saved Gamed folder is within the same user-specific directories that Documents and AppData are in, and would still allow for game saves to be user-specific.

[–] deleted 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah my bad.

I misunderstood OP and the comment as well.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think maybe you misunderstand me.

In Windows 10 and 11, inside each user folder was a folder specifically meant for game saves.

The only devs I've seen use it are CD Project Red.

[–] deleted 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Ooh I see. I thought you’re against it. I know how the appdata folder works.

I saw OP complaining that firefox is using .mozilla and I thought he wanted data to be saved at program files/firefox.

Then when I read your comment I thought that you’re complaining why devs are using user folder or appdata instead of program files/.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Well, the user is complaining about where it's installed on Linux, not Windows.

It's in the home directory. On Linux, most applications split data between a cache, config and local directories. But for Firefox everything is in one.

Personally, I don't mind it. It makes transferring my Firefox setup between distros easy.