Thanks dragonslayer48dx!

The idea that /usr once contained users' directories seems totally likely to me and satisfies my curiosity concerning /usr and its expansion. And while such a discussion may seem nitpicky to some, the ability to read between these lines really does affect ones ability to really understand the system.

I very vaguely remember reading somewhere that /usr was the second-level heirarchy used for multi-user applications.
I mean like: /bin and /sbin and /lib are used for the core, really essential files that you'd need at init 1 for a basic boot-up. The next level of folders i.e. /usr/bin, /usr/sbin /usr/lib etc are used by apps running on runlevel 3 onwards (And one step deeper in the tree is /usr/local which also has a similar directory set).
That line of reasoning did make some sense for me.. / is for root's applications, /usr is for the users'.

/ contains all resources needed to boot, and only that: boot into a bare environment.

Non-essential applications are in /usr. In big networks, /usr is often mounted from the network. With /usr mounted, the system is a lot more usable.

/usr/local is where the administrator of the local machine stores non-essential stuff for his machine only. So you have /usr that is mounted inside / and may come from the network, /usr/local that is mounted inside /usr and should NOT come from the network.
In most configurations though, as we usually deal with small networks, /usr is local, and /usr/local is on the same partition.

And /opt is another story

Yves.

theYinYeti: that's interesting. I wonder then, if there's a 1:1 mapping of files between what's in "/" and what can be found in a miniroot. By your reasoning, we might expect this to be the case.

how to make nano functionable in debian? how 2 schedule it for downloading on a particular time?
Dear friends....I'm a beginner...what commands should b typed in 'nano'to schedule it for downloading at 2'O clock at night.Pls help me.pls spare some time to answer me....

dear friends what is meant by 'curses'(for eg.'btdownloadcurses")?

usr stands for "user-specific resources" and it fits quite nicly i think. it might be other abbreviations that is used with "usr" though, but i wouldnt know about them other then the ones ive read in this thread

According to linux-training.be/files/books/html/fun/ch09s08.html, it stands for Unix System Resources.