Tech
Firefox is fixing a 21-year old problem on Linux
As part of the upcoming release of Firefox 147, Mozilla has resolved a bug report about missing support for Freedesktop’s XDG Base Directory standard. The report had been open for a whopping 21 years, and the fix will make Firefox installation files cleaner and more organized.
Bug 259356, created in September 2004, outlined how Firefox was not following XDG Base Directory specifications, which directs application developers to put configuration, data, and cache files in subdirectories already created in the user’s home directory. These directories are ones you might already know, like ~/.config and ~/.cache, and they’re integrated in Linux as environment variables. Instead of doing that, Firefox would, on installation, create its own ~/.mozilla directory organized Mozilla’s own way.
You can see this yourself if you run the ls command in your home directory while showing hidden files with the -a flag:
ls -a
You can see Mozilla’s directory listed right alongside XDG’s standard ~/.config directory already being used by other applications that do follow XDG Base Directory specifications.
This lack of standardization means finding and editing Firefox files is its own skill. In contrast, exploring the files for the multitude of other applications that use the XDG standard takes just one lesson in directory structure, and you can find them using variables like $XDG_CONFIG_HOME. It also keeps your home directory clutter-free, as you have fewer hidden application folders in view, while software assets are still there in standard directories when you need them.
This bug fix will arrive with Firefox 147, which I anticipate to arrive in January 2026. As someone who uses Firefox on Linux computers daily, I’ll be looking for it to it. I’m glad to see Mozilla making its software more organizationally efficient for us Tux fans.
Still, I can’t help but notice Mozilla is throwing us this bone at the same time Firefox is getting annoying, invasive AI tools. The Firefox web browser appeals to folks using Linux because they tend to be privacy-conscious, and Firefox has a less problematic history of data collection and bloat than the likes of Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. I, of course, appreciate a home directory that’s a little less cluttered, but I think Mozilla has bigger issues with Firefox it needs to address if it wants to stay within Linux users’ good graces.
