Hi,
Here is what I ran into today and I do not understand this simple procedure in Linux.
o I installed hardinfo - apt install hardinfo
o In the menu I type hardinfo
o Menu displays “System Profiler and Benchmark” which is hardinfo
o In /usr/share/applications I also see System Profiler and Benchmark
So I don’t see the connection between name hardinfo and System Profiler & Benchmark. How does the system connect the two? Where does hardinfo points to this other name?
In /usr/share/applications there is a file hardinfo.desktop, which contains
[Desktop Entry]
Name=System Profiler and Benchmark
Name[es]=Informacion y Rendimiento del Sistema
Name[fr]=Informations et Benchmarks du Système
And other lines too, which are not relevant now.
So there you see the displayed name, but the .desktop is called “hardinfo”.
Does this connect the dots for you?
Sorry, it was not there. I even checked for a hidden file.
The only files that started with ‘h’ was Help, HexChat, Hot Corners, and Hypnotix. And there were no files with .desktop.
How did you check?
Look at it in a terminal.
ls -l /usr/share/applications/ | grep hard
What does this output?
It should say something like
laco@Nagygep:~$ ls -l /usr/share/applications/ | grep hard
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 669 2021 aug 16 hardinfo.desktop
Even more confused.
Yes, the use of the terminal as you shown does indeed list hardinfo.
I went directly to the folder with Nemo and looked at the files stored there.
So still don’t understand how one method shows it being there and the other does not. Sounds like quantum physics. It’s there but yet it is not.
Actually, they have the same name, same location, but look completely different. One has only .desktop the other does not have any. So I am still missing a piece of the puzzle.
Hi Howard,
I think you are being tricked by the sort order in Nemo. I know Thunar lists all directories first, then files, then dot files.
One of the problems with file managers is you cant grep the output. When you have a large system directory with hundreds of files it is better to do as Laszlo suggested and use the ls CLI command.
Regards
Neville
Yes, you are right. But by Nemo, my own logic, or lack of understanding.
I have yet to figure out by which one. It’s late here on the east coast of USA so I will have to
look over my notes and what @kovacslt showed me tomorrow.
If Nemo is tricking me, I would consider that a Big flaw with the file manager and/or Linux.
Is Schrödinger’s cat alive? Let’s check it!
I’m just having my morning coffee 
and I’m thinking, what tricks you is the behaviour of Nemo.
It shows the .desktop file by reading the Name= property in it, and displays the file using that name, and shows the icon specified in the icon= property.
If the system is non-english, the displayed name is also localized using the name[local]= property. So a german Nemo would display the name[ge]= property for the very same .desktop file.
This is how Nemo does this, this is specific to Nemo, not Linux in general.
(Nautilus in Gnome doesn’t do this behavior - it has other drawbacks 
).
You can list the .desktop files more directly (looking at lower level) using cli commands, or a file manager in terminal, like Midnight Commander, or using a different GUI file manager, like Double Commander or Krusader.
Edit:
@easyt50 , you are not alone:
I dont like it. Clear case of the File Manager being too clever.
Exactly! As I see the feature request on Github, more than one people share our point of view.
Apart from that I like Nemo.
Hi @kovacslt and all, 
Exactly the same with me (Linux Lite):
rosika@rosika-Lenovo-H520e ~> ls -l /usr/share/applications/ | grep hard
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 669 Mär 9 2022 hardinfo.desktop
Cheers from Rosika 
@easyt50 :
Hi Howard,
on Linux Lite with thunar:
there´s just hardinfo.desktop but no “System Info” entry.
Cheers from Rosika
Thunar behaves more traditional than Nemo
No doubt, this is better, and easier to understand.
Hi László,
thanks for the evaluation. That´s good to know.
I myself have no experience with nemo at all. I´ve always used thunar for as long as I can remember.
We´ll, I´m pretty set in my ways, it seems.
Many greetings from Rosika 
Probably you always used XFCE, which has Thunar as file manager.
Cinnamon has Nemo, Mint has Caja (looks very much like a copy of Nemo, at the moment I don’t whether it behaves similarly with .desktop files).
Gnome has Nautilus, KDE has Dolphin…
So many implementations for the same thing! 
Hi László,
Actually in my early Linux days I was using Lubuntu, which first made use of PCManFM (when using LXDE) and later PCManFM-Qt (when using LXQt) as file-manager.
But if I remember correctly I post-installed thunar even then because I like how easy it is to create and manage user-defined commands for the right-click menu.
With Linux Lite (using XFCE) thunar comes as per-default, of course.
Many greetings from Rosika
Because it reports the filenames truthfully. There is nothing worse than misleading reporting in software. @easyt50 has every right to complain.
If Nemo want to report those other names, that is fine, but they should also report the real filename… that is essential.
Hi Everyone,
Laszlo, you were right, but I did not understand.
And Neville, you were right too. I was being tricked.
I strongly agree. 100%
I have never gone to a folder using a file manager and been tricked before (not seeing the real file names). I don’t like that! I like Nemo, but now, I will wonder when it will trick me again. Why not a warning or notification that something is being translated?
Thanks Rosikaa, at least Thunar shows what the real file names are.
Thanks to all for your replies and educating me a little about Linux. I now know more about .dsektop files and how they work. I now understand how the exec name and description name are linked together using .desktop.
Have a good day.
Howard
