> I don't think "add another layer of abstraction to hide the complexity" is often a good solution I wholeheartedly agree here. > Docker brings it's own probl

> I don't think "add another layer of abstraction to hide the complexity" is often a good solution I wholeheartedly agree here. > Docker brings it's own problems too This is a rather complex statement to reply to. Even thought you might be right, I don't think this applies totally to what is being discussed here. The biggest issue I have with people advising for or against a certain tool, is that they do that from the point of view of the tool, instead of looking at fit from the problem you are trying to solve. that in your case, would be: > I have years of experience with messing around with all of the relevant parts of Windows, Mac, and Linux and it never Just Works As long as you manage to install Docker in all those 3 systems (I have no experience with Mac because I don't use it) both for Windows and Linux installing Docker is a no brainer. There's a slight curve when it comes to fetching the right image and running it, but your problem is not that one; your problem is teaching Python. So you can take care of that yourself, and focus on the teaching part. Supposing that you managed to install Docker, fetch a python image and running it (Something that is a lot more easy to do than it sounds), you have python, whatever version you want, and in an isolated way. For me... it just works.