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Comment by BeetleB | Hacker News Reader

>I think the one thing we are all learning from this experience is: JUST USE UBUNTU, doing python with Windows is a headache.

Meh. I use python on Windows all the time - it's not a problem. Mostly pip just works.

Of course, I have over a decade of experience with Python - albeit only the last few years in Windows.

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the #1 issue i have with py on win is having to download a million different C++ compilers esp for packages not distributed on pip, and esp the more obscure ones with no support whatsoever (e.g. data processing or math packages that were put together by some chap who was working on it for a specific set of research papers and has since moved on).

chris gohlke's website was a real lifesaver back then, although now pip seems much better. nowadays it can be a bit difficult replicating environments across different machines especially since conda is moving rapidly from python ver to ver while some obscure packages i rely on are still stuck on 3.4 or earlier... or if c++ 10.0 or 9.0 or 14.0 is not set up correctly. then it becomes an issue of crossing fingers and hoping "python setup.py install" doesn't fail.

What's the point of using Windows as a Dev or data science environment anyway? Everything is built and works well in Linux, scripting is powerful, it's free, etc.. seriously asking.

When you work for a company that gives you Windows PC's, and have a horrible Linux environment (through a network, not on your laptop). From a Python standpoint, there is no down side to developing in Windows.

It's easier for me to install the Python libraries I need in Windows than to install them on Linux where I don't have root privileges.

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