https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49865
--- Comment #9 from Olivier F. R. Dierick o.dierick@piezo-forte.be --- (In reply to N from comment #8)
Why winecfg can't install it in /usr/share/wine/gecko instead of WINEPREFIX?..
Hello,
For the same reason Wine can't write into /var/log: Only root (and accounts with admin privileges) can write into /usr/share.
Wine has the same access as the user running it, but Wine MUST NOT be run as root or it'll break wineprefixes and prevent applications from working, so it can't install wine-gecko into /usr/share/wine itself. The admin has to do it.
It could be done at the packaging level but WineHQ.org currently doesn't provide packaged wine-gecko, and none of the major linux distributions I know of provide wine-gecko packages in UNIX-style installation.
Some distribution provide wine-gecko in MSI-style installation, but that installs it in each wineprefix.
Regards.