Alexander Larsson has put together the xdg-user-dirs stuff, and caused a riot in the process. It's stable code, integrated in rawhide, and seems to be working well. He's managed to do something that we've been arguing about for years, in a cross desktop way, and in a way that is truly configurable for some of the power users that can't change habits.
It's not specifically deciding on common directories for stuff that's making Linux more suitable for the masses, but it is sure a step in the right direction. So Alexander, Matthias and whoever: Thanks, and keep up the good work.