I'm learning to live with two versions of Python. If your setup is similar to mine, in /usr/bin you'll see 3 python programs: python2.4, python2.5, and python. The last will be a link to one of the first two. You can control which python is used by editing the first line of Python scripts: change "python" to either "python2.4" or "python2.5" -- if one doesn't work, try the other. For programs you install with "configure/make/make install", any new Python scripts or modules will be put in /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages (to be used by python2.4) or /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages, depending on whether /usr/bin/python is a link to /usr/bin/python2.4 or a link to /usr/bin/python2.5. So you can control which Python the program will use by changing that link. You can also set the environment variable PYTHON to control which Python will be used.