I've not really found a definitive answer for this question. I've had to edit jQuery plugins to replace instances of $. This, for me at least, is a serious issue. Anyone coming after me, if going to have a nightmare to maintain of upgrade my work. I use a lot of plugins.
Is this really the only option?
If the plugin is poorly written then I guess you could try using the jQuery.noConflict method.
If it's properly written you don't need it because it will already wrap all $ usages in an anonymous method:
(function( $ ) {
$.fn.myPlugin = function() {
// Do your awesome plugin stuff here
};
})( jQuery );
As Darin has mentioned, well authored plugins are wrapped in an anonymous method. You can use the same trick in your own code too, rather than use noConflict - for example if you had a JavaScript file with loads of jQuery in it that you didn't want to update:
(function ($) {
$(document).ready( function () {
$('#myid').hide();
});
// and so on...
}(jQuery));