Terry Jan Reedy wrote:
"This installer also installs the multiversion py.exe launcher if doing
so would not be a downgrade. If you have admin access, we recommend installing one py.exe for all users. See xxx for how to use py.exe. [ ] Install py.exe for all users.
+1, Particularly on this part. If the user installing Python has administrative access, I don't see much of a reason for them to have to install a separate launcher and installation. Recommending a global py.exe install for them seems to be far more straight forward.
I'm not certain as to whether or not we are able to collect statistics on this, but I would not be at all surprised if the majority of users installing Python had administrative access on the device they're installing it on. While I think the ability to allow non-admin users to install packages in their own install is very useful, it should not come at the expense of making the process confusing for those with administrative privileges.
Steve Dower wrote:
It also means
that regular users can install packages without needing to be admin, and without corrupting other user's installs.
Does this have any advantage over using a virtual environment? I can imagine this might be more simple for new users (since they don't have to do anything additional), but setting up a virtual environment to use for a separate set of packages is very straightforward nowadays with venv.