diff --git a/IPython/core/usage.py b/IPython/core/usage.py
index 5c1cb7b..bce4ea6 100644
--- a/IPython/core/usage.py
+++ b/IPython/core/usage.py
@@ -45,10 +45,9 @@ Usage
 
     This file is typically installed in the `IPYTHONDIR` directory, and there
     is a separate configuration directory for each profile. The default profile
-    directory will be located in $IPYTHONDIR/profile_default. For Linux users,
-    IPYTHONDIR defaults to `$HOME/.config/ipython`, and for other Unix systems
-    to `$HOME/.ipython`.  For Windows users, $HOME resolves to C:\\Documents
-    and Settings\\YourUserName in most instances.
+    directory will be located in $IPYTHONDIR/profile_default. IPYTHONDIR
+    defaults to to `$HOME/.ipython`.  For Windows users, $HOME resolves to
+    C:\\Documents and Settings\\YourUserName in most instances.
 
     To initialize a profile with the default configuration file, do::
 
diff --git a/docs/man/ipython.1 b/docs/man/ipython.1
index a017fb0..0f4a191 100644
--- a/docs/man/ipython.1
+++ b/docs/man/ipython.1
@@ -45,8 +45,7 @@ or 'ipython \-\-help\-all' for all available command\(hyline options.
 \fIIPYTHONDIR\fR
 .RS 4
 This is the location where IPython stores all its configuration files.  The default
-on most platforms is $HOME/.ipython, but on Linux IPython respects the XDG config
-specification, which will put IPYTHONDIR in $HOME/.config/ipython by default.
+is $HOME/.ipython if IPYTHONDIR is not defined.
 
 You can see the computed value of IPYTHONDIR with `ipython locate`.
 
diff --git a/docs/source/config/old.rst b/docs/source/config/old.rst
index e166fbc..ee29e13 100644
--- a/docs/source/config/old.rst
+++ b/docs/source/config/old.rst
@@ -12,8 +12,7 @@ Outdated configuration information that might still be useful
 This section will help you set various things in your environment for
 your IPython sessions to be as efficient as possible. All of IPython's
 configuration information, along with several example files, is stored
-in a directory named by default $HOME/.config/ipython if $HOME/.config 
-exists (Linux), or $HOME/.ipython as a secondary default. You can change this by
+in a directory named by default $HOME/.ipython. You can change this by
 defining the environment variable IPYTHONDIR, or at runtime with the
 command line option -ipythondir.
 
diff --git a/docs/source/config/overview.rst b/docs/source/config/overview.rst
index d0dbbbb..413cb00 100644
--- a/docs/source/config/overview.rst
+++ b/docs/source/config/overview.rst
@@ -527,5 +527,3 @@ Here are the main requirements we wanted our configuration system to have:
   dynamic language and you don't always know everything that needs to be
   configured when a program starts.
 
-
-.. _`XDG Base Directory`: http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html
diff --git a/docs/source/whatsnew/pr/no-xdg.rst b/docs/source/whatsnew/pr/no-xdg.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..06e73cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/source/whatsnew/pr/no-xdg.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+* Previous versions of IPython on Linux would use the XDG config directory,
+  creating :file:`~/.config/ipython` by default. We have decided to go
+  back to :file:`~/.ipython` for consistency among systems. IPython will
+  issue a warning if it finds the XDG location, and will move it to the new
+  location if there isn't already a directory there.