Vim: Not able to activate plugins , ... missing vim folders? etc

I am learning Vim .... on Linux Mint Cinnamom Rebecca (17.1), 64 bits

I am learning plugins for Vim from here: http://www.swaroopch.com/notes/vim/
There is a free download book.

Excerpts from page 60 of book (http://files.swaroopch.com/vim/byte_of_vim_v051.pdf):
" 2. To install your own plugins or plugins that you have download from somewhere, you can use your own plugin directory:
• $HOME/.vim/plugin/ on Linux/BSD/Mac OS X
… "

The Vim help files also mentioned this via vim command, :help plugin
USING A GLOBAL PLUGIN

First read the text in the plugin itself to check for any special conditions.
Then copy the file to your plugin directory:

system plugin directory ~
Unix ~/.vim/plugin/


My $HOME is :
~ $ echo $HOME
/home/foffb

But there is no $HOME/.vim folder, even after I enable "Show hidden files".
The vim folder I found is here, and plugin folder also shown is like so:
/usr/share/vim/addons/plugin

So I downloaded highlight_current_line.vim (found here http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1652)
as suggested in the book, and put it in the only Vim plugin folder I found:

/usr/share/vim/addons/plugin/highlight_current_line.vim

When I ran vim, and I moved cursor over a line of texts, the line is not highlighted !
Meaning plugin, "highlight_current_line.vim", does not work.

Questions … too many, but here are a few for now:

1) Why do I not a have same folder structure for Vim
as mention in the Vim's help docs and the "A Byte of Vim" book?
Meaning there is no .vim under $HOME folder.
AND ....
This is all the vim stuff I have under $HOME :
~ $ locate $HOME/.vim/plugin
No returned result ....
~ $ locate $HOME/.vim
/home/foffb/.viminfo

2) Where should I put the plugin?
Where does your .vim folder reside in your Linux?

3) What else did I missed?

Thanks.

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