Additionally, you may run into a problem where your distribution only offers certain versions of python and its packages, when you need newer versions. On syste

Additionally, you may run into a problem where your distribution only offers certain versions of python and its packages, when you need newer versions. On systems like CentOS, this becomes a bit more complex as you can wind up in 'dependency hell' trying to compile everything you may need for a complex python program. virtualenv and pip make this very easy to manage and set up.