title: Ubuntu + virtualenv = a mess? virtualenv hates dist-packages, wants site-packages
body: <p>Can someone please explain to me what is going on with python in ubuntu 9.04?</p>
  
  <p>I'm trying to spin up <code>virtualenv</code>, and the <code>--no-site-packages</code> flag seems to do nothing with ubuntu. I installed <code>virtualenv 1.3.3</code> with <code>easy_install</code> (which I've upgraded to <code>setuptools 0.6c9</code>) and everything seems to be installed to <code>/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages</code></p>
  
  <p>I <em>assume</em> that when installing a package using apt-get, it's placed in <code>/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/</code> ?</p>
  
  <p>The issue is, there is a <code>/usr/local/lib/python2.6/site-packages</code> as well that just sits there being empty. It would seem (by looking at the <code>path</code> in a <code>virtualenv</code>) that this is the folder virtualenv uses as backup. Thus even thought I omit <code>--no-site-packages</code>, I cant access my local systems packages from any of my virtualenv's.</p>
  
  <p>So my questions are:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>How do I get <code>virtualenv</code> to point to one of the <code>dist-packages</code>?</li>
  <li><em>Which</em> dist-packages should I point it to? <code>/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages</code> or <code>/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/</code></li>
  <li>What is the point of <code>/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages</code>? There's nothing in there!</li>
  <li>Is it first come first serve on the path? If I have a newer version of package XYZ installed in <code>/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/</code> and and older one (from ubuntu repos/apt-get) in <code>/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages</code>, which one gets imported when I <code>import xyz</code>? I'm assuming this is based on the path list, yes?</li>
  <li>Why the hell is this so confusing? Is there something I'm missing here?</li>
  <li>Where is it defined that <code>easy_install</code> should install to <code>/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages</code>?</li>
  <li>Will this affect <code>pip</code> as well?</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Thanks to anyone who can clear this up!</p>