Why aren’t all of these just normal directories under either .local (for data files) or .config (for configuration)???
Actually, I think the XDG directories should be under a single XDG directory either dotted or not (a better name would be OK with me) ~/xdg/Documents, ~/xdg/Music, ~/xdg/Pictures etc.
Documents, Music, etc actually are configurable. Just edit
~/.config/user-dirs.dirs
I also had to (under KDE)
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Edit the settings for each of the folders in Dolphin (The file manager)
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Edit the location of the desktop folder in the settings found by right-clicking the desktop and going into “Configure Desktop and Wallpaper” Location.
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Edit the show item by choosing Custom Location, and adding the XDG directory for the desktop. This setting may not stick.
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That’s the beauty: XDG compliant applications are entirely configurable using standardized environment variables.