Greetings

A very interesting thread!!

On Fri, Apr 19, 2019 at 1:02 PM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk
<talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
>
> | From: Stewart C. Russell via talk <talk@gtalug.org>
>
> | One gotcha I had with Anaconda was that it usurped the system Python
> | interpreter[s] in the user's path. Your /usr/bin/python won't change,
> | but the one seen by env as a user might. Causes endless fun when
> | installing packages.
>
> Thanks for the warning.
>
> This relates to my lightning rumination: "what is a distro?"
>
> As a Linux user, it has been very convenient to delegate several
> software maintenance tasks to the distro:
>
> - selecting
> - security auditing
> - configuring
> - testing
> - bug fixing
> - updating

I'm not sure what you mean by 'updating'?
Are you expecting the distro to schedule the update?
Do you want the distro to inform you of newer versions?
Hmmmmmmmm - - - please?
>
> I may not agree with all their choices, but it sure makes life easier.
> I pick a distro based on how happy I am with the distro's choices.
>
> Sometimes I install software that isn't provided by the distro.  A
> little more work for me, but not a problem.
>
> The trouble you mention comes from software that is partially from
> inside the distro and partly from outside.  Python3 is part of Ubuntu
> 16.04.  But, Anaconda, part of the Python system is not part of
> Ubuntu.  I assume you install it with pip.
>
> If you actually change how Python3 behaves (as opposed to just adding
> stuff), your distro's software could misbehave -- some is written in
> Python3.
>
> Similar problems arise with TeX (CTAN) and with Perl (CPAN) and who
> knows what else.
>
> Another variant of the problem arises when you need something more
> modern than what the distro provides.  This is accute in RHEL because
> it is so focussed on stability.
>
> I think that Canonical's "Snaps" (and flatpak.org's "Flatpak's) are
> meant to address this hard problem.  I don't know how well this works.

Regards
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