[SOLVED] Installing Eclipse

[Fredashay]

Quick questions:

Is /bin the correct place to put an executable that I installed manually?
How do I create an icon on my desktop and panel for an executable that I installed manually?

TL:DR:

I recently switched to Linux Mint from Windows 7. One of the things I use my 'puter for is writing plugins in Java to mod my Minecraft server. On Windows, I used Eclipse Luna (yeah, an old version, but I grew comfortable with it and didn't like the work flow of the newer versions).

Anyway, when I installed Eclipse from the Software Manager and tried to run it, I got the following error:

An error has occurred. See the log file
/home/oof/.eclipse/org.eclipse.platform_3.8_155965261/configuration/1558564626443.log

The contents of that log are a Java stack trace:

!SESSION Wed May 22 18:37:06 EDT 2019 ------------------------------------------
!ENTRY org.eclipse.equinox.launcher 4 0 2019-05-22 18:37:06.459
!MESSAGE Exception launching the Eclipse Platform:
!STACK
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter
at java.base/java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:471)
at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:588)
at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:521)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:626)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:584)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1438)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:1414)

And here's my system specs in case that matters:

System:
Host: oof-X10DAi Kernel: 4.15.0-50-generic x86_64 bits: 64
compiler: gcc v: 7.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.0.10
Distro: Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: Supermicro model: X10DAi v: 123456789 serial: <filter>
UEFI [Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 1.0a date: 09/24/2014
CPU:
Topology: 2x Quad Core model: Intel Xeon E5-2623 v3 bits: 64
type: MT MCP SMP arch: Haswell rev: 2 L2 cache: 20.0 MiB
flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 96023
Speed: 1200 MHz min/max: 1200/3500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1200 2: 1200
3: 1203 4: 1201 5: 1201 6: 1203 7: 1201 8: 1203 9: 1200 10: 1201 11: 1201
12: 1200 13: 1200 14: 1201 15: 1200 16: 1202
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GM107GL [Quadro K620] driver: nvidia v: 390.116
bus ID: 81:00.0
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: nvidia
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 3440x1440~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Quadro K620/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.116
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel C610/X99 series HD Audio vendor: Super Micro
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0
Device-2: NVIDIA driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 81:00.1
Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-50-generic
Network:
Device-1: Intel I210 Gigabit Network vendor: Super Micro driver: igb
v: 5.4.0-k port: 6000 bus ID: 05:00.0
IF: enp5s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel I210 Gigabit Network vendor: Super Micro driver: igb
v: 5.4.0-k port: 5000 bus ID: 06:00.0
IF: enp6s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 17.29 TiB used: 9.63 TiB (55.7%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD6003FFBX-68MU3N0
size: 5.46 TiB
ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD6003FFBX-68MU3N0
size: 5.46 TiB
ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Western Digital model: WD1000DHTZ-04N21V0
size: 931.51 GiB
ID-4: /dev/sdd type: USB model: Kindle Internal Storage size: 6.24 GiB
ID-5: /dev/sdf type: USB vendor: Western Digital model: WD60EZRZ-00RWYB1
size: 5.46 TiB
Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: HL-DT-ST model: DVDRAM GH24NSC0 rev: LK00
dev-links: cdrom,cdrw,dvd,dvdrw
Features: speed: 12 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes
rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 916.39 GiB used: 54.31 GiB (5.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdc1
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 31.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 41 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 34%
Info:
Processes: 345 Uptime: 2h 24m Memory: 125.79 GiB used: 7.72 GiB (6.1%)
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.4.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.19
inxi: 3.0.27

I attempted a number of fixes, including uninstalling and reinstalling Java. Same result when I tried to launch Eclipse.

So I then went straight to the source and downloaded an old version of Eclipse Luna for Linux from eclipse.org as a tar.gz file. I then extracted the /eclipse folder into my /downloads folder and ran the executable. I never expected it to work, but... Violin!!! It launched and let me select my workspace! Whoohoo

So what's the problem, you're thinking?

I then moved the /eclipse folder into /bin because I didn't want it to live in /downloads, but whenever I want to launch Eclipse, I need to go into /bin/eclipse and click on the executable.

That's why I posted this in Newbie Questions rather than a thread for more experienced users :-/

Is /bin where it belongs? Or should I move it somewhere else, like /opt or /usr/bin? I'm not sure where it really belongs.
And how to I put an icon for it on my start menu, my program bar, and on my desktop? Since I didn't actually "install" it with Software Manager, there doesn't seem to be a way to tell Linux, "Hey! I just installed this thing manually, so please treat it like an installed application!"

[AndyMH]

You can put it wherever you like, generally somewhere in your path (echo $PATH in a terminal), I'd probably put it in /usr/bin. Right click on the mint menu > configure > menu editor and you can create a new launcher.

[Fredashay]

Okay. I was debating between /opt and /usr/bin. So /user/bin it is. Thanks!