Standardizing Software Installation: Why Configuration Should Use System Defaults
By
breezk0
Crisp on the outside, thoughtful on the inside. A keeper.
Summary
The article discusses software installation practices, arguing that installers should respect standard configuration and cache directory locations rather than asking users where to install applications. It emphasizes that configuration files should go to defined system locations (/etc, ~/.config on Linux; registry, %appdata% on Windows) for easier management, synchronization, and backups, while cache directories should use standard paths (/var/, ~/.cache on Linux; %localappdata% on Windows). The author notes that while configuration files are small and space isn't a concern, application files vary greatly in size (from tens of MB to tens of GB), and users often have multiple storage tiers, suggesting installers should offer installation location choices only for large application files, not for configuration.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledConfiguration should go in a defined place. /etc and ~/.config on linux, registry and %appdata% on Windows.
A common location makes management, synchronization and backups easier, and space is rarely a concern for configs.
Cache directories should go in a defined place. /var/ and ~/.cache on linux, %localappdata% on Windows.
Application files have a huge size range depending on the assets the program needs (typical sizes range from the tens of MB to the tens of GB, with large outliers in either direction).
I have multiple tiers of storage (a terabyte of SSD, multiple TB of HDD, tens of...
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