Ubuntu "philosophy"

[Thomas Raudaschl]

Hi,

I have been migrating from Windows and it is bit hard for me understanding the 
"philosophy" behind two systems:

1. /etc/groups
For instance: I could not find an explanation behind entries like "root", 
"adm", "admin", "sudo". Why there are 4 similar groups, what makes the 
difference?
There are entries which do not mean anything to me.
I suggest to place a link to an introduction at prominent places like this:
https://help.ubuntu.com/9.10/index.html

2. directory setup
A similar question regarding the directory set up.
What is behind /etc/*, /var/*, /usr/*, etc.
Are their preferred places you install "your" system-wide programs?
I understand Ubuntu is flexible - I just want to set up things in a way others 
can follow without too much of explanation. I would expect conventions 
everyone among you experts are familiar with.
Again, a link in https://help.ubuntu.com/9.10/index.html would be fine for me.

Let me know, if I have beans on my eyes (as we say in German, if someone is 
unable to find obvious things).

Regards
Thomas
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