diff --git a/configure.sh b/configure.sh
index f25214fe954f94cba9968361ce3d04fee943f7b3..5ed7934565e8726cd3166c4486c5ad99094c4d6a 100755
--- a/configure.sh
+++ b/configure.sh
@@ -36,13 +36,13 @@ esac
 
 echo 'export PATH="'"$PWD"'/src/lib/:$PATH"' >> sourceme.sh
 # this is just for mac:
-echo 'export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH:'"$PWD"'/src/lib/"' >> sourceme.sh
+echo 'export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="'"$PWD"'/src/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH"' >> sourceme.sh
 
 cat << EOF >> sourceme.sh
 export PLUMED_KERNEL="$PWD/src/lib/libplumedKernel.$SOEXT"
 EOF
 
-echo "PLUMED will be installed using prefix $HOME/opt"
+echo "PLUMED will be installed using prefix /usr/local"
 echo "If you wish to change this, set PLUMED_PREFIX environment variable before compiling"
 echo "Executable will be named 'plumed'"
 echo "To add a suffix to this name, set PLUMED_LIBSUFFIX environment variable before compiling"
diff --git a/src/maketools/update-plumedroot.sh b/src/maketools/update-plumedroot.sh
index ee28d12b49b908c4bdc70ff1902db7b58cae36fa..2628f0b9dc3bc6670edc43c8d306a76e9893f7da 100755
--- a/src/maketools/update-plumedroot.sh
+++ b/src/maketools/update-plumedroot.sh
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ test -n "$1" || {
   exit 1
 }
 
-PLUMED_PREFIX="${PLUMED_PREFIX:=$HOME/opt}"
+PLUMED_PREFIX="${PLUMED_PREFIX:=/usr/local}"
 PLUMED_LIBSUFFIX="${PLUMED_LIBSUFFIX:=}"
 test -n "$PLUMED_LIBSUFFIX" && PLUMED_LIBSUFFIX="-${PLUMED_LIBSUFFIX}"
 PLUMED_ROOT="${PLUMED_PREFIX}/lib/plumed${PLUMED_LIBSUFFIX}/"
diff --git a/user-doc/Installation.txt b/user-doc/Installation.txt
index f3feac01d39c36ddc58ec7aa330854422e43b463..0b3597a3be03631806886eac51df3b283086d3ca 100644
--- a/user-doc/Installation.txt
+++ b/user-doc/Installation.txt
@@ -99,7 +99,8 @@ the environment variable PLUMED_PREFIX, then type "make install"
 > export PLUMED_PREFIX=$HOME/opt
 > make install
 \endverbatim
-The latest command should be executed with root permissions (e.g. "sudo make install")
+If PLUMED_PREFIX is not set, it will be assumed to be /usr/local.
+The install command should be executed with root permissions (e.g. "sudo make install")
 in case you want to install plumed on a system directory.
 An almost full copy of the compilation directory will
 be installed into $PLUMED_PREFIX/lib/plumed/ directory. A link to the proper