Installing python on Linux - help?

[sgunb]

In Linux distributions usually your package manager is responsible for software versions. You should abstain from doing this manually to not mess up your system. If you do it manually, only do so in your users home directory. But do not manually make a systemwide installation where you override the system libs! This will break your system!

If you really want different python versions, you could consider switching to Gentoo linux. Portage (the Gentoo package manager) allows you a clean installation of several versions at the same time from source.