Getting started as a leech:

• In your home directory, create a bin directory: mkdir ~/bin.
• Add the new directory to your PATH. This requires you to edit .bashrc or .bash_profile (or something else, if you're using a shell other than bash). The confusing part is that the system will sometimes read .bashrc and other times read .bash_profile. (See the manpage for the details.) Most users just want consistent behavior. To achieve that, open both files in a text editor and consolidate the contents into, say, .bashrc. Then change your .bash_profile to be a one-line file with the line:

  ./.bashrc
  

  Now, either way, the system will read .bashrc. Finally, concerning the PATH, find the line in .bashrc where PATH is set, and insert $HOME/bin near the front of the path. For example, the old line might be:

  typeset -x PATH=.:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
  

  Then the new line would be:

  typeset -x PATH=.:$HOME/bin:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
  

• Now consult the list of packages and follow the specific instructions for individual packages.