I've been researching a bit and I've found from version 1.4.0 Flume supports a "plugins.d" folder, a special path where to install packages implementing new functionalities, in addition to their dependencies. This strategy leaves the "lib" folder for core packages. Please, take a look to http://flume.apache.org/FlumeUserGuide.html#installing-third-party-plugins. According to this, and if we agree on using such "plugins.d" folder, I would rename this section as "Installing Cygnus and its dependencies".