Bug 513029 - ~/Desktop directory is translated to/named two different terms in German
Summary: ~/Desktop directory is translated to/named two different terms in German
Status: RESOLVED DOWNSTREAM
Alias: None
Product: i18n
Classification: Translations
Component: de (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: unspecified
Platform: Other Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: German-Translators
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-12-06 23:46 UTC by Ben Opp
Modified: 2025-12-16 14:34 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
partial screenshot of Dolphin window showing the location list in German locale (40.57 KB, image/png)
2025-12-06 23:46 UTC, Ben Opp
Details

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Description Ben Opp 2025-12-06 23:46:17 UTC
Created attachment 187400 [details]
partial screenshot of Dolphin window showing the location list in German locale

SUMMARY
The ~Desktop folder is named "Schreibtisch" in the file system, but in Dolphin (file manager as well as file picker windows) it is also sometimes named "Arbeitsfläche". I can't think of a good reason why it should stay like that - it messes with your visual as well as search-tool based searching habits, poses problems for German documentation and so on.
It should just be called "Schreibtisch" everywhere a) because it's the name used in the file system and b) it contains no special characters and c) is the somewhat more obvious translation od Desktop.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Make sure your Plasma/system locale is any  variation of German
2. Check the name of the directory that is called ~/Desktop in the English locales
3. Compare it to its name e.g. in the Dolphin locations.

OBSERVED RESULT
Of course this does not strictly regard only Dolphin, because so many apps, widgets etc. make use of the location UI strings also used by Dolphin (I'm guessing?), but I suspect Dolphin is the prime culprit. I don't have insight into the libraries shared for accessing locations in KDE apps, widgets etc, but Dolphin is where it keeps catching my attention and probably the most obvious instance of it.
Maybe someone with more insight into the ecosystem can chime in with a more educated guess, but this problem has been here for a long time already, and it would probably take much too long for me to count the instances where it pops up.

EXPECTED RESULT
Any one directory should be always referred to by the same name throughout the system.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS

Operating System: Garuda Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.20.0
Qt Version: 6.10.1
Kernel Version: 6.17.9-zen1-1-zen (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Comment 1 AlexB 2025-12-10 23:09:49 UTC
Hello Ben,
the issue you are describing is not related to German localization of KDE. In kde-l10n-de „Desktop“ is consistently translated to „Arbeitsfläche“ (see e. g. https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/desktop).
I suppose during installation process you have chosen German for installation → /home/ben/Schreibtisch was created by installer. This path is then used in system as „Desktop“ folder, which is then translated to „Arbeitsfläche“.
By the way: „Schreibtisch“ is translated as „Desk“, see https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/schreibtisch
Best regards
Alexander
Comment 2 Philipp Kiemle 2025-12-11 14:33:39 UTC
Hello!
I can confirm the issue on my Kubuntu 25.10 machine, it is exactly as you documented in the screenshot.
However, I could not find any string translated to "Schreibtisch" in our translation files (apart from obviously non-related ones).

As a workaround, you could create a ~/Arbeitsfläche directory, go to System Settings → Session (Sitzung) → Places (Orte) and change the "Arbeitsflächenordner" to /home/USER/Arbeitsfläche".

I'd file a bug to Garuda, since I suspect they have set the "XDG_DESKTOP_DIR" environment variable to ~/Schreibtisch instead of ~/Arbeitsfläche.
Comment 3 Ben Opp 2025-12-12 11:13:10 UTC
(In reply to AlexB from comment #1)
> Hello Ben,
> the issue you are describing is not related to German localization of KDE.
> In kde-l10n-de „Desktop“ is consistently translated to „Arbeitsfläche“ (see
> e. g. https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/desktop).
> I suppose during installation process you have chosen German for
> installation → /home/ben/Schreibtisch was created by installer. This path is
> then used in system as „Desktop“ folder, which is then translated to
> „Arbeitsfläche“.
> By the way: „Schreibtisch“ is translated as „Desk“, see
> https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/schreibtisch
> Best regards
> Alexander

If this a distro issue related to the installer or whatever else - Are you saying that there are distros that don't have this discrepancy?
I guess Arbeitsfläche is the prettier term semantically, but Schreibtisch is nicer "computationally", it has only ASCII characters so it will never cause problems in a (highly frequented) file path, and surely everyone understands what it's referring to.
But I'd really like to find out if distros exist (with official KDE out of the box) where that directory is also named Arbeitsfläche. I can't say 100% sure, but I think I've never seen one. Will however investigate on the Garuda side as well.
Comment 4 AlexB 2025-12-12 14:22:00 UTC
(In reply to Ben Opp from comment #3)
> (In reply to AlexB from comment #1)
> 
> If this a distro issue related to the installer or whatever else - Are you
> saying that there are distros that don't have this discrepancy?

No, I don't because I don't know if it is so.

> I guess Arbeitsfläche is the prettier term semantically, but Schreibtisch is
> nicer "computationally", it has only ASCII characters so it will never cause
> problems in a (highly frequented) file path, …

I agree about usage of only ASCII characters and that this would make many things easier.
But one have to take into account that there are much more languages than only English and German. And most of them needs at least UTF-8, e. g. French, …, Chinese, Japanese 

> … and surely everyone understands what it's referring to.

I agree too, same applies in my opinion to current situation: Label in Dophin says „Arbeitsfläche“, after right-click on it you see where it is pointing to: „/home/someuser/Schreibtisch“

> But I'd really like to find out if distros exist (with official KDE out of
> the box) where that directory is also named Arbeitsfläche. I can't say 100%
> sure, but I think I've never seen one. Will however investigate on the
> Garuda side as well.

You have to think much wider: It is possible to install different desktop environments on same base. Once you want to run one DE, another time another one. But you underlying file system (folder and files) are staying same. But you cannot push both (e. g. KDE and another DE) to use same strings… My assumption: following variables are showing what DE is now running:

  $ printenv | grep DESKTOP
  DESKTOP_SESSION=plasmax11
  XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=KDE
  XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=KDE

Also KDE is able to run on Smartphones, TVs, … But underlying OS on them could be different one. As you see, free software is free to be used and free to decide what is the best in different cases. What you need is some interface, in case of DESKTOP and which folder is use for it one could use:

  $ xdg-user-dir DESKTOP
  /home/someuser/Schreibtisch

or as you could see on https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/391915/where-is-the-path-to-the-current-users-desktop-directory-stored it is:

  /home/arnie97/桌面

By the way: I have just created a new user „test“, logged in and see:

  $ ls
  Bilder  Dokumente  Downloads  Musik  Öffentlich  Schreibtisch  Videos  Vorlagen

→ „Schreibtisch“ is there → was created after log in.
→ „Öffentlich“ is there → not ASCII

→ Some underlying part (of Linux?) is creating those folders → possible not related to a distro…

Please note: all above is just my opinion to your points, not some official statement ;-)
Comment 5 Oliver Schramm 2025-12-16 14:34:12 UTC
xdg-user-dir does have it’s own translations and if you look at the german translation there, you’ll find "Schreibtisch" for "Desktop":
https://translationproject.org/domain/xdg-user-dirs.html

So, I guess you could contact them about this. Not sure how GNOME has translated Desktop, but if they agree with us, it would be a good idea if xdg-user-dir would use our translation.