Date:        Tue, 27 Aug 2002 22:45:45 +1000
    From:        Daniel Carosone <dan@geek.com.au>
    Message-ID:  <20020827124545.GA4218@bcd.geek.com.au>

  | Right, they where the place where programs written by users of the
  | system were put. Over time, a certain collection became commonplace,
  | I guess.

No, that's not what /usr/bin was.

It was simpler than that, the / filesystem filled up, and stuff
had to be put elsewhere (and because / was the size of the drive
in use at the time, just making it bigger wasn't an option - unix
didn't have either ccd or raidframe at the time...)

We went though all of this the last time people started wondering
about /bin vs /usr/bin splits, and why, and what belongs where.
I asked dmr, and what he said is what is above.   Note this happened
*very* early in the evolution of unix, when the drives were about 5MB...
(That is, before the 74 CACM paper was written).

kre