Unix bin directories

Understanding the bin, sbin, usr/bin, usr/sbin split is both a fun stroll through UNIX history and also a good illustration about how far-reaching decisions are sometimes made based on short-term limitations, creating long-term complexity where it otherwise might not exist. This is probably unavoidable, but nudges me toward the conclusion that all decisions – behind which there may be serious conviction, or the best of intentions – should be reviewed on some routine basis (once a generation? every other generation?) to determine if their underlying prompts have changed significantly.

Even Paul Atredies struggled with future decisions. And he was Muad’dib!