The one thing that keeps bugging me about Python (ignoring speed for a moment) is the lack of attention to seamless pain-free deployment. There are two types:

The one thing that keeps bugging me about Python (ignoring speed for a moment) is the lack of attention to seamless pain-free deployment. There are two types: Web and desktop. Both are a mess. On the web the "easy button" is to pay for a dedicated service that is setup to specifically deal with the fact that deploying a Python/Django app to a Linux server is a nightmare and a mess. You can deploy a PHP application to any server you care to choose from any hosting company in the world. Grab a cheap GoDaddy server and off you go. It's that simple. With Python? Forget it. To some extent I blame this on the simplistic integrated development server trick. Sure, it's great, you install Django and you can see a site on your computer with no effort. And then comes the reality of moving whatever you created to the real world. On the desktop, well, again, it's a mess. As much as people love to dump on Visual Basic, the one thing they got absolutely right was that you could develop an application, test it locally, and have it in installable form to use internally or send to customers with zero effort. Back in the day we created dozens of tools, both for internal and external applications both with VB and VC++ (these were Windows-based) and Objective-C for Mac. Python does not make this simple at all. In my opinion, Python developers really need to take this aspect of how software is uses seriously. The only use for a language in isolation of creating tools people can use is in academia. Outside of that, we need to be able to deploy applications, be it web, desktop or mobile. Sometimes it seems zero thought or work has been given to this reality. How crazy is it? Try to create just a simple desktop console application. Something silly, like a console-based calculator or hangman game. Now try to package it in installable form for delivery to Mac or Windows users who need to double-click on an icon and install/uninstall the application as they would with anything else on their systems. Why can't Python do that when VB was doing it decades ago?