@zhandro:
I'd point out that it isn't about the system being Linux-based that controls the behavior for paths. It would have been better stated as "pathname 101" or "pathname basics", with the exception of course of esoteric pathname systems.

@billy900: If the argument to 'cd' is a directory, the current working directory (CWD) will still be changed, whether the path contains a trailing slash or not. Assuming /some/path/some/dir is a directory, the following commands are equivalent:

cd /some/path/some/dir
cd /some/path/some/dir/

This also applies to DOS pathnames. The following commands are equivalent:

cd \some\path\some\dir
cd \some\path\some\dir\