From: adam@address.invalid   
      
   Bit Twister wrote:   
   > On Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:13:47 -0400, Adam wrote:   
   >>   
   >> I was wondering what to do when both the distro and the vendor   
   >> offer the same program, e.g. Firefox.   
   >   
   > System admin's choice.   
      
   I suppose if I want to be the sysadmin here (of this one computer in my   
   living room), I'll have to make sysadmin decisions. :-)  I appreciate   
   all the opinions on both sides of this issue.   
      
   > My solution is to create xx_local.sh in /etc/profile.d   
   >   
   > xx_local.sh changes $PATH to have /usr/local/bin: after the sbin: and   
   > before the other bin directories.   
      
   I put something similar in /home/adam/.bashrc .  Putting it in   
   /etc/profile.d sounds better, though.   
      
   > That way, whatever I put in /usr/local/bin will supersede the vendor's   
   > app.   
      
   Yep.  When I was using Mandriva 2010.0, the distro's version of gphoto2   
   was 2.4.7, but so many things depended on it that I couldn't remove it.   
     I wanted to use 2.4.11 because it included support for cameras I had,   
   so I compiled it into /usr/local.  From the command line, gphoto2 ran   
   2.4.11, but 2.4.7 was still wherever Mandriva 2010.0 expected to find it.   
      
   > In the case of plugins, I have moved the vendor's plugin into _vorig   
   > to get it out of the way if firefox did not show the desired plugin in   
   > about:plugins   
      
   That makes more sense than just renaming them.   
      
   > Here you can see there is distribution's firefox in /usr/bin   
   >   
   > $ type -a firefox   
   > firefox is /usr/local/bin/firefox   
   > firefox is /usr/bin/firefox   
      
   But if you (and I mean you in particular, not a general "you") are using   
   Mozilla's latest version for your online activities, why is the distro's   
   version installed at all?   
      
   Adam   
   --   
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