Difference between 佈 and 布 Can anyone help me clarify the difference between 佈 and 布? If I'm not mistaken, this is only relevant for traditional characters since 佈 has been simplified to 布. A dictionary lookup for 佈 shows that it has the same meaning as 布:

(1) 遍及、散滿。通「布」。如：「佈滿」、「遍佈」、「散佈」。
(2) 宣布、宣告。通「布」。如：「公佈」、「頒佈」、「發佈」、「佈告欄」、「佈道大會」。
(3) 安排、設置。通「布」。如：「佈置」、「佈陣」、「佈防」、「佈地雷」。

When searching for pages in traditional Chinese on Google, it seems like "公佈" and "公布" are both commonly used, but in other cases, the difference is quite big; 布置 is much less common than 佈置.

So, what's the difference? Is it a matter of habit and common usage or is there a pattern I fail to see?
This doesn't exactly match the usage you observed, but《现代汉语词典》 differentiates between 布 and 佈 as follows:


  布: 1. 用棉、麻等织成的，可以做衣服或其他物件的材料, 2. 古代的一种钱币, 3. 姓
  佈: 1. 宣告；宣布, 2. 散布；分布, 3. 布置


This would lead me to believe that the traditional character 布 is only acceptable in cloth-related compounds and that 佈 is correct in both 公佈 and 佈置 (and all related verbs). This doesn't account for the prevalence of 公布; perhaps that's a simplification that's been in use so long that it's now commonly accepted.

(Of course, as you said, in situations where simplified characters are used, the distinction is irrelevant.)