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I have never broken my Python installation on Windows (official installer) despite recklessly installing anything. If I had broken it, I would have just uninsta

I have never broken my Python installation on Windows (official installer) despite recklessly installing anything. If I had broken it, I would have just uninstalled and reinstalled. While not familiar with macOS (topic of this article), I think the Mac installer works the same. On Debian of course you can cause great damage because the system Python is used for critical system functions. This is silly, I think the system python should be an isolated install in /usr/sbin. Better yet, move back to Perl for the system.

rbanffy 2y ago
You won’t break a machine by installing Python packages on an OS that never uses Python for anything.
- analog31 2y ago
  This is a good point and something I hadn't thought about. I'm also a happy Windows user, and have never had a problem with Python installations. But like you say, Python isn't baked into the system. I do use one piece of commercial software that includes Python. You can see the installer saying "installing Python." I suppose it should fall on the OS and software vendors to not abuse the infrastructure... "to whom much is given, much is expected," but maybe too much to expect.
  - rbanffy 2y ago
    I remember that, in the past at least, one could completely destroy a Red Hat install by messing too much with the system Python.
    - analog31 2y ago
      I guess "Python is my operating system" has its unintended consequences. ;-)
swiftcoder 2y ago
To be clear, there's absolutely nothing broken about the system Python in the article. There is just a shell alias causing the anaconda version of Python to be launched instead when you type `python3` at the command prompt...