Ubuntu should move all binaries to /usr/bin/

[Dane Mutters]

>
> FWIW, grub.cfg is deliberately in /boot, rather than putting an
> autogenerated file in /etc.  (/boot/grub/menu.lst had its own problems,
> as a partly-autogenerated and partly-manually-maintained file - a scheme
> that might almost have been designed to create bugs.)


Colin, I'd forgotten that the autogenerated GRUB 2 grub.cfg is in /boot,
not /etc; I agree that this is less frustrating than if it had been in /etc.


> Quite frankly: there has been no discussion among Ubuntu developers
> about doing anything of the kind, and I seriously doubt that it would
> ever make it onto our to-do list which has more than enough on it
> already without making work for ourselves.  The suggestion on this list
> of moving binaries to /usr/bin hasn't been made by Ubuntu developers.
>
> If it ever came up as a serious prospective Ubuntu development project,
> I would argue strongly against it on the grounds that the gains, if any,
> would be negligible compared to the work involved and the bugs that
> would be likely to be created.  Simplifications here belong at higher
> levels.  For example, the suggestion made somewhere in this thread that
> there's no good reason for Firefox to require the full path to an
> executable to open a resource seems like an excellent one.  It should
> rarely be necessary to care about the full path to an executable at all,
> never mind attempting to consolidate them all into one directory.


I admit that I'm quite glad to hear all this.  :-)  I, for one, would
welcome Firefox and all others (where feasible) not requiring full paths to
executables.  I wonder if this is a Windows compatibility thing that isn't
fully Linux-ized?  I'm sure the bug that Chris kindly pointed-out has the
full scoop.

I can see how this issue would be better handled on a per-application
basis, than on a distribution-wide one.  Thanks for your comments.

Cheers!

--Dane
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