[SciPy-User] setup question

[Yury V. Zaytsev]

On Thu, 2010-12-30 at 14:15 -0500, Nathaniel Polish wrote:
> I am about to take the plunge into scipy/numpy/python.  It seems that 
> python has recently split into 2.x and 3.x versions.  Should I be going 
> down the python 3.x path or 2.x path if I am primarily using it for scipy? 
> Are the 2.x/3.x python issues relevant to scipy?

If you are asking such a question, it means that you need Python 2.x. 

To make the long story short the libraries transition to py3k is far
from being completed and for now if you don't really need py3k features
as a matter for life and death you'd better start with 2.x and migrate
to py3k later on when it's and you are ready.

> I will be running on Ubuntu -- any caveats there?

Python 2.x, Numpy, Scipy and whole lots of things come pre-packaged with
Ubuntu, so you will only need to install them using Synaptic. Although
not the latest versions, obviously. But you don't need latest and
greatest if you're just taking off. You will see when you will need more
recent versions as you gain more experience.
 
-- 
Sincerely yours,
Yury V. Zaytsev