Why are .thunderbird and .evolution hidden ?

[Roger]

> It's UNIX tradition, going back forever: config files are always
> hidden.  The idea is that when you say "ls", you shouldn't see
> anything that you didn't put there yourself.  It also makes it less
> likely that they will be deleted or renamed.
>
> Andrew.
>    
I have found over the years that the .thunderbird files have saved me a 
number of times and also use the .file protocol to "put away" files I 
don't need to have displayed.
it's a good concept
Roger