diff --git a/src/Composer/Command/GlobalCommand.php b/src/Composer/Command/GlobalCommand.php
index beeca5b77..d189f44d5 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Command/GlobalCommand.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Command/GlobalCommand.php
@@ -42,6 +42,9 @@ is to add the COMPOSER_HOME/vendor/bin dir to your PATH env var.
 COMPOSER_HOME is c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Composer on Windows
 and /home/<user>/.composer on unix systems.
 
+If your system uses freedesktop.org standards, then it will first check
+XDG_CONFIG_HOME or default to /home/<user>/.config/composer
+
 Note: This path may vary depending on customizations to bin-dir in
 composer.json or the environmental variable COMPOSER_BIN_DIR.