"Here's a quick question: How are modern Linux systems
worse than most old MS DOS systems? MS DOS applications knew how to
use subdirectories to organize different applications. Linux
distributions seemed to have forgotten this, making most people's
computers utter and complete messes.
It seems most Linux distributions, starting with RedHat, have
used the File System Standard to forget how to use subdirectories
to organize files. Hundreds of applications now routinely get
installed in one directory, /usr, making it nearly impossible to
tell what is on your system or do basic system management using the
standard Linux tools. You have to use the package manager. Typical
Linux systems have over 2,000 programs sitting in one directory:
/usr/bin. This is obscene.
How did this mess get started? Well, traditionally under both
Unix and DOS you used subdirectories to group related files. So
Microsoft Office got it's own folder, CDE got it's own folder, X
Windows got it's own folder, Oracle got it's own folder... you see
where I'm going ;-) On either platform if an application required
more than a few files it was placed in it's own directory. This was
considered good organization and made systems easier to
manage."
