[NTLUG:Discuss] Sysadmin type question: Where should programs go?

[Terry]

On 5/6/05, John K. Taber <jktaber at charter.net> wrote:
> I settled on Thunderbird for a newsreader. It is installed in a login
> user's id. No real problem because I'm the only user.
> 
> But suppose I had several users and installed Thunderbird so that each
> could use it.
> 
> Where should the system administrator put the package? In /usr/local?

Yes, (but it's totally up to you).
 
> In other words, I got the impression that some directories are there for
> a purpose. I'm too new to Linux to understand what the purposes are, so
> if you were installing Thunderbird on one computer for the use of
> several users, where would you put it?
> 
> Moving right along,
> John
> 

What you do is install it as root, but move it to, or install it to a
directory that makes sense [to you] like:
/usr/local
or
/usr/lib

When the application is started by a user, it'll create a new "profile"
which just mounts to creating a hidden directory .thunderbird/  
i.e.
    /home/[user-name-here]/.thunderbird/
Within that [hidden] directory will be kept all the user files used by
that particular user.