Why does Mathematica 4.2 launch if I execute the Mathematica 5.0 math script?

By installing Mathematica 5.0 and 4.2 in the following order...

...the Mathematica 4.2 Installer will detect scripts in /usr/local/bin and asks if it's OK to overwrite. If you selecte “yes”, then running the Mathematica 5.0 math script will cause the Mathematica 4.2 kernel to launch since these scripts are actually symbolic links to the Executables directory in the 5.0 installation which were replaced by the 4.2 scripts.

$ /usr/local/Wolfram/Mathematica/5.0/Executables/math

Mathematica 4.2 for Linux
Copyright 1988-2002 Wolfram Research, Inc.
 -- Motif graphics initialized -- 

In[1]:= $Version

Out[1]= 4.2 for Linux (August 23, 2002) 

To avoid this, uninstall all copies of Mathematica and reinstall them making sure that Version 5.0 is the last version of Mathematica installed.

Download this FAQ as a Mathematica 5.2 Notebook

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