Installing Python on CentOS 6 - a big pain

[Anssi Saari]

Benedict Verheyen <benedict.verheyen at gmail.com> writes:

> If i need to install a new version of Python, as I happen to have done today,
> I only need to do step 4. Which is maybe 5 minutes of work.

I don't really understand why you compile these common libraries (zlib,
ncurses, readline) yourself instead of using the relevant libraries
provided by your Debian system? Is it just that you didn't *know* Debian
puts parts needed for compilation in separate packages so you'd need to
install those first?