How I use Python in 2025

It’s not the easiest thing to get going with Python in 2025. If you’re used to working with something like R, the experience with Python is likely to be less than you hoped.

Here’s what works for me (the few times I do something with Python):

• Install miniconda https://www.anaconda.com/docs/getting-started/miniconda/install
• Activate the conda environment source ~/miniconda3/bin/activate
• Create a Bash alias for the activation, rather than having it on by default, as you get with Anaconda. That wouldn’t be an issue except that it seriously screws up your R environment. alias condastart='source ~/miniconda3/bin/activate'.

Now I open a terminal and enter condastart to have a working conda environment without affecting R.

Why not Anaconda, which seems to be what everyone is using? Because of licensing. I don’t know the specifics, but in some cases you’ll have to pay insane licensing fees, and that’s true even if you barely use it. Rather than figuring out how to avoid that, I can just use miniconda.

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