Not really, no. Try some searches as this topic comes up every couple of weeks. I seem to recall a rather convoluted work-around from a couple months back, but I don’t recall if it was functional or not.
As to why WordPress likes “category” (or word of your chosing at Options->Permalinks):
Let’s use your example of “/category/informatique/”. Suppose you eliminate “category/” from that url.
Now, suppose you create a new WordPress Page and name it “informatique”… They have the same name!
The problem with searching on this topic is that it *does* come up every so often, and that all the threads are left “hanging” without an answer. 🙁
The issue of /category/ appearing in the url is also a big problem for me.
Yes, if someone were to create a page with the same name as the category, it would create problems. But then, it should be the responsibility of the site owner/manager not to do goofs like that. One would imagine there should be possibilities of checking for doubled up slugs as well, like “hey, this slug already exists, are you sure you want it doubled?”
The problem is that the URL should, IMHO, reflect the site’s structure. Throwing “category” in the URL means things aren’t following the site structure, in particular if you have
http://mysite.com/category/categoryname/
and
http://mysite.com/categoryname/date/postname/
Makes for incosistent URL, which means a user cannot deduce the URL and “work back” from the second URL to the first one.
Just my 2 kiwi cents.
