Okay, so new thread! 

As I was repartitioning my hard drive, I was trying to find out the lowdown on 
this /opt folder. This is a new thing since I have started running Trinity; I 
never noticed it before when running Kubuntu. Only after I started running 
the Trinity desktop, that is when I noticed the installation to /opt; and 
only then I noticed that other programs were installing in that folder. 

A friend told me that he creates separate partitions for both /opt and /etc; 
and then, too, I noticed that the new Icecat browser does something even 
weirder, which is to install in /usr/lib/icecat, rather than (like other 
Mozilla browsers) in /home/<USER>/.mozilla/. 

My question is really more or less the same for all these items. I want to be 
able, once I have configured them as I wish, just to clone that directory, so 
that I don't have to keep reinventing the wheel, over and over again. 

When I tried to research the /opt folder, I didn't find out much. If I create 
a separate partition, will I be able to leave it untouched like my home 
folder? Will Trinity (and other programs) automatically be installed there? 

I suppose could just back it up regularly, then overwrite it once I have 
reinstalled, but I would like to treat it like my /home/<USER>/ folder, and 
leave it intact. 

The same with Icecat: it seems to run better than Firefox/Iceweasel, but to 
install everything in /usr/lib/icecat seems very irregular. Is there some way 
to get it to install elsewhere? for example, in /opt? 

Bill