> This position is, at best, inconsistent. and that is why i gave up trying to use mac os as my desktop. there was no proper way to install 3rd party software

> This position is, at best, inconsistent. and that is why i gave up trying to use mac os as my desktop. there was no proper way to install 3rd party software that dealt with conflicting versions. if macports or some other package solution could get it right, then articles like this one would be irrelevant and users could just do something simple like "<some utility> install ruby", get a new ruby installed and have the old built-in version disabled. until something like that happens, you are going to run into issues where some software picks up one version and something else picks up another. relying on a properly set $PATH is not a solution.