What should the main folders be on a Leopard iMac?

I don’t think it matters but it is less confusing when hunting for a specific app that you don’t have on your dock, to have them all in one folder. Under places I also have photos and movies and a few other folders of my own.

My answer from a while ago might explain things. It even has pictures. Mine is certainly different from the default. But hopefully it explains what is where and why.

link

I guess what I really need to know is

1. is there stuff that MUST be in Places?
2. Is it normal to have 2 different Applications folders? (1 in Home, 1 in Places)

Places are actually just aliases. You can add or delete whatever you want there.

The Application Alias is what you would normally find under the root of the hard drive. Usually the Application folder under your home directory will be empty.

And that would be compared to the app folder at the root.

Applications installed only for one user can be placed in the /User/Applications folder. All other applications are available to all users (unless disabled in Parental Control.