I'm trying to change into a directory called ~user, but every time it
changes to the user's home directory.

Usually this can be addressed by ./~user, but that can have troubles.

Steps to reproduce ...

1. $ mkdir foo
2. $ mkdir foo/~user

Now to try it:

1. Type in selection textbox: foo/~us
2. Hit tab
3. You're looking at /home/user

Or another way:

1. Double-click "foo"
2. Double-click "~user"
3. You're looking at /home/user

Here's a workaround:

1. Type in selection textbox: foo
2. Hit tab
3. Type in selection textbox: ./~user  (./~us doesn't work)
4. Hit tab
5. You're looking at /home/user/foo/./~user/

(The reason I have a directory called ~user is to stop username enumeration
on an Apache server - only one user needs web space.)

This is what dpkg says is installed:

ii  libgtk1.2      1.2.10-9       The GIMP Toolkit set of widgets for X
ii  libgtk1.2-comm 1.2.10-9       Common files for the GTK+ library
pn  libgtk1.2-dbg  <none>         (no description available)
ii  libgtk1.2-dev  1.2.10-9       Development files for the GIMP Toolkit
pn  libgtk1.2-doc  <none>         (no description available)