Paul F. Dubois wrote:

Some of this discussion has wandered into the 'we are all competent computer people here so what is the problem going to get x and installing it' line of reasoning.

Many Python users are not very good at computing. If they know how to install Python now why make that disappear? The fact that in principle they could manage somehow if we didn't provide a zip file doesn't mean they should have to. It just isn't a big deal on our end.

Not only are batteries included, but we have several sizes to fit your equipment.

Well, we are not talking about a simple click-the-shiny-exe-and-the-yes-button install here. We are talking about source code install of Python on Unix-like computers. The number of users who can install Python that way but can't install bzip2, even with the source code must be very very small.