To which directory should I install a program from a bash script?

I want to install Netbeans 7.0.1 with a bash script from the Netbeans website. The default directory chosen by the installer is /home/geoffrey/netbeans-7.0.1. But I do not think it belongs there.

If you want it for all users, /opt is a great place.

/opt is for entire software packages (rather than those that are split up across the various directories). See the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.

Google Chrome, for example, installs to /opt

If you want it for a single user I would put it in ~/bin (or at least a link to the binary)

If you want it for all users, I would put it in /usr/local/bin (or at least a link to the binary).

I've created an ~/apps directory in which I store such external programs to avoid the home directory being cluttered.

I then create a symlink in ~/bin to programs in ~/apps. Storing everything in ~/bin or /usr/local/bin is a bad idea since the folder contains other files (non-binaries) too.