Once upon a time, Bryn M. Reeves <bmr(a)redhat.com> said:
I just assumed it was by analogy to /usr/local - a per-user directory
for local
installation with a structure mimicking /usr.
But the user already has the whole home directory. On RPM-managed
systems, the different between /usr and /usr/local is that /usr is RPM
managed and /usr/local is not. ~/ is already not RPM-managed. ~/bin
has been in the default PATH for many years; why do we need a second
such directory?
The source of /usr/local was NFS-mounted /usr, with /usr/local being on
the local system. ~/ would typically be NFS mounted in that type of
setup (users don't get space on the local drive except /tmp), so
~/.local would be meaningless.
--
Chris Adams <cmadams(a)hiwaay.net>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.