File Organization

Hi All,
I am a novice linux user trying to learn Linux. I have Fedor Core 5 installed and enjoying learning it. I have a few questions as to

[*]1. where do normally the downloaded files are placed linux?
Just create a folder in the home directory and download there? What's the convention?

[*]2. I would like to install Java, Tomcat and other development tools. Where do they normally installed? any folder I would like to or there are good practice as where they should normally installed?

Thanks.
Himali

That's a good one and always drove me nuts as I started with Linux.

Hope these links help

http://www.comptechdoc.org/os/linux/usersguide/linux_ugfilestruct.html
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/linuxdir.html

Your downloaded files are probably at /home/yourUserName or /home/yourUserName/Desktop

Thanks for the informational links.
Any idea how I can change the color of the Terminal from while to Black?Alos how can I change the size of the cursor as the current cursor is rectangle and thick?
thanks.

1. There is no common convention.
Using an directory dl in your home is a good idea.

2. There might be prebuild packages for your distribution (.rpm), and if so, it will decide by itself where to install to.
But if you need to use different versions in parallel or only get tarballs, installing such programs to /opt is an common pattern.

There's no system definition for a download directory, but the FireFox web browser as initially installed downloads to your desktop. I often create a special "downloads" directory and tell FireFox to use that instead.

If you're using command-line tools such as ftp or lynx, downloads usually are done to your current directory.

There also is no standard command-line graphical terminal program, though three are popular in the X Window environment: xterm, gnome-terminal, and kterm. the gnome and k terminals have menu options you can use to change fonts and colors and stuff. Additionally, there's environment variables you can set up. The xterm terminal isn't very fancy, so the only place you can set its options are in the environment. RTFM for the terminal program you want to use. If you don't like the options, there are other terminal programs available as well.