Where should I put programs that I download so they're available to all users?

Is there a convention that says where I should put programs I download if I want to make them available to all users? Blender, for example, appears to have a compiled executable, but also other directories and files that it (presumably) depends on.

The answer to To which directory should I install a program from a bash script? recommended /opt, but it isn't in my $PATH by default, and my /opt happens to be empty despite installing a lot of stuff from Ubuntu Software Center.

Solution 1:

The preferred method for that is /opt, although some people are known to put them in /usr/local/bin

As for your other question related to the Ubuntu Software center, not all packages in the Ubuntu Software Center are set to install to /opt - in fact, most of them don't follow that "standard".

Solution 2:

You will get varied opinions on this, even in the documentation.

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch12.en.html#_compile_and_install_a_program

http://wiki.debian.org/FilesystemHierarchyStandard

On the second link, scroll down to /opt and /usr

As pointed out, I personally tend to use /usr/local as it is on the $PATH