Hi Yugal and others,

Replying to my own post:

---
| The problem remains that ...
\--

In this context, I also wish to add the following points:

1. You need to understand that everything starts from the root (/),
and we follow Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) [1].

So, distro packages install in /usr (for example). With F/OSS, you
have the freedom of source code, which is not there in proprietary
systems. With great freedom, comes great responsibility.  You could
always use the distro package manager to install software, and newbies
should only do that, unless you want to be a 'developer' or
'engineer'.

So, when you manually install a tarball, you can specify --prefix to
'configure' script in the source tarball as to where you want to
install the software. For example, it could be /tmp or /usr/local.
Distro package managers automate this to /usr.

2. Please don't fight with the system.

You are trying to expect the system to behave the way you want it,
without understanding how the system is designed to work.

This is a problem when people show GNU/Linux as an alternative to
other systems, and then they expect the system to behave the same way
that other systems do. But it is not, and so people just blame the
system! That is why we jokingly call it PEBKAC [2]. The URL explains
important differences: http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

3. You have to first accept that the system is *nix like, and it is
different from what proprietary system you are used to. You have to
learn how the system works (if you want to be a developer), and
because you have the freedom (unlike proprietary systems), you can
configure the system the way you want it.

Welcome to the *nix world!

SK

[1] FHS. http://www.pathname.com/fhs/
[2] PEBKAC = Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair.

-- 
Shakthi Kannan
http://www.shakthimaan.com

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