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Author steve.dower
Recipients NaCl, bwanamarko, paul.moore, r.david.murray, steve.dower, terry.reedy, tim.golden, zach.ware
Date 2015-03-20.22:19:40
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Message-id <1426889981.24.0.98375691424.issue22516@psf.upfronthosting.co.za>
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> my guess (conceded, this is based on no actual metrics) would be that 99% of Windows users use the python.org installers, certainly not the other way around.

Based on numbers I've heard it's certainly a majority currently using the python.org installers, but that doesn't mean they should be.

I see three main use cases for the installers:

* people who need Python for themselves
* people who need to bundle Python inside their app
* admins who want to pretend/make-as-if Windows was shipped with Python

Currently, the python.org installer is partway between 1 and 3, and somewhat closer to 3. I've heard a lot of complaints from people in #1, who are mostly helped by one of the distros, and #2 who don't have a real good option right now. (99% in category #1 is an exaggeration, but they're still a majority.)

Being somewhere between these points is not good. Personally, I think #2 (which I think about as "Python-as-a-library") is something that it's really our responsibility to support. #3 is also something that only we [pydev] can do (unless MSFT starts doing it, but I'd expect a lot of the burden would be pushed back onto pydev in this case), while #1 is a fairly straightforward for anyone to do once #2 is supported.

Certainly if #2 became official, we [MSFT] would be more aggressively helping people get set up with the same version of Python as we install on our PaaS servers on Azure. Currently, we can't reliably install the python.org installers automatically in case it conflicts with the user's existing configuration.

Most of your examples use the python.org installers because they are in category #2 and don't have a better option. When/if we decide what category the python.org installer should focus on, it will make it easier to explain which option people should use.
History
Date User Action Args
2015-03-20 22:19:41steve.dowersetrecipients: + steve.dower, terry.reedy, paul.moore, tim.golden, r.david.murray, zach.ware, bwanamarko, NaCl
2015-03-20 22:19:41steve.dowersetmessageid: <1426889981.24.0.98375691424.issue22516@psf.upfronthosting.co.za>
2015-03-20 22:19:41steve.dowerlinkissue22516 messages
2015-03-20 22:19:40steve.dowercreate