Just curious: why is /usr/bin/python not a symlink?

[HoneyMonster]

On Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:24:23 -0500, Jerry Hill wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 2:11 PM, HoneyMonster
> <someone at someplace.invalid> wrote:
>> $ cd /usr/bin $ ls -l python*
>> -rwxr-xr-x 2 root root 9496 Oct 27 02:42 python lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root
>>    6 Oct 29 19:34 python2 -> python -rwxr-xr-x 2 root root 9496 Oct 27
>> 02:42 python2.7 $ diff -s  python python2.7 Files python and python2.7
>> are identical $
>>
>> I'm just curious: Why two identical files rather than a symlink?
> 
> It's not two files, it's a hardlink.  You can confirm by running ls -li
> python* and comparing the inode numbers.

You are spot on. Thank you, and sorry for my stupidity.