&gt; since your computer and you are the only &quot;user&quot; (usually) so why not put everything in the same place<p>The Linux (and late UNIX) way was not changing the &#x2F;usr for each user, but on sharing &#x2F;usr through several computers. This way, you had to administer just one computer, for a network of any number of terminals.<p>That become obsolete only after modern package and configuration managers were created.