Where are the "program files" in Debian?

Question

I'm new to Linux and not really sure how the file system works.

When you install a program in Windows, it stores the program's files in the Program Files folder and creates an icon in the Start menu. If I want to create an icon myself, I just search for the exe, as there is usually only one exe file with the program name, and I create a shortcut to launch it.

Could someone explain me what happens when I install a program on Linux? (by running a .deb file) Where does it store the program's files, how can I identify the file I have to run to start the application, and how do I create a shortcut to run it?

Solution

Since *nix doesn't use file extensions on binaries it's much harder to use that method to find your program. However, most of the time newly installed programs are placed in a location that puts them on the PATH. If that's the case, using where {program} from the command line should tell you where it's located.

Comments

[Rob]

Shortcuts are a whole different story depending on your display manager, though.