Ce gars-là est fou. Qu'on le lapide, et vite!

Apple didn't invent the idea storing all application-related files in
one place. I think I read somewhere that an early version of RISCOS
did it this way, but Apple has adopted this idea very nicely, and
Windows isn't too far behind. The basic idea is that most files for an
application are stored in one single place. The application NeoOffice,
for instance, has a directory (anywhere you want to put it, really)
called NeoOffice.app. Under that directory are all of the binaries and
data files associated with the base install of that app. Some
structure is imposed so that MacOS knows where to look to find things,
but the main idea is that if you want to run or manage this app, there
is this one place to look. Installing or uninstalling is a matter of
drag-and-drop. Running the application is simple too--double-click on
the directory, and the right thing happens, with the folder acting as
a representative, to the user, of whatever is in the folder. For the
end user, this keeps things painfully simple.

Windows isn't too bad on this front. Under the Program Files
directory, you find most of your major apps. The only thing they're
missing is the directory-as-proxy mechanism. You have to know a little
more in order to find the executable and run it, if you haven't
already got a link to it somewhere.

Linux, unfortunately, sticks to its UNIX heritage of spreading things
out all over the file system. Executables to in /bin, /sbin, or
/usr/bin or /usr/local/bin. Shared objects go into /usr/lib or
somewhere under /usr/local. Configuration files (all plaintext; see
below) go somewhere under /etc or somewhere under /usr/local. There is
a standard that describes in detail how things should be structured,
but it's much too brittle. In theory, conventions, even complex ones,
can be strictly followed, and everything works out well. But this is
an example of a convention that adds just enough complexity and
confusion that it doesn't get followed consistently, and the one left
holding the bag is the end-user who can't figure out where their files
are when something goes wrong. I've been using Linux a lot longer than
MacOS, but while I can easily find whatever I want pertaining to an
app in MacOS, I am clueless about Linux. And I've even installed a
good number of Gentoo systems. The distinction is that the UNIX way is
logical but arbitrary. The Apple way, on the other hand, is simply
intuitive. That's why it's easier to remember and use.

Here, like for most of this article, I'm going to be pragmatic and
suggest that Linux people adopt a Microsoft-like strategy: If you see
someone doing something in a way that works better, adopt it. So, the
solution for Linux systems is to gradually deprecate all of this /bin,
/usr, /etc confusion (except perhaps for the most basic of system
tools like find and ifconfig) and adopt a system that collects all
files of each app into its own directory. And this should be done even
if there is some redundancy! I think one of the ideas behind the UNIX
way is that many apps will share resources. This was a good thing in
the 1970's when resources were scarce. Today, however, this sharing
often results in version conflicts that break apps and make life hard
for users. Think of the users and make things intuitive, even if it
results in some minor increase in complexity or redundancy for
software developers.


http://theosib.livejournal.com/1742.html