At some point Linux desktops bought into that whole 'less is more' religion that plagues Windows, and started to hide crucial things like file paths in the name of esthetics and to not confront the poor simple users with the ugliness of the Unix file system tree. This is the result.

That looks like Ubuntu, which I believe uses a modified version of Nautilus for the file manager. Hitting CTRL-L (for "location") should give you a path bar to type into.

Its so annoying tbh. Ctrl+L works. But not in everything like Firefox. Why can't we have a better file explorer! I'm honestly wayyy faster with windows file explorer because the filepath is always there.

Seems the Debian chain (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint) hide it by default but there is an option to enable it. It's one of the first things I do because I use it a lot.

I think they're all using Nemo (depending on desktop)? Not at home to check it currently (Debian 13 at home, Mint on bootable USB drives).

... Don't trust me on Ubuntu, I haven't used it since the telemetry debacle.

which file manager are you using? i have gnome's files and it lets me specify the path by click on the current folder name and it looks like you're using the same thing.

Run XFCE and use Thunar. : )

I use Nemo in XFCE and the file path is always there.