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Python Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Adds Python To Windows -- Sort Of (microsoft.com) 100

A post this week on Microsoft's developer blog explains "what we, the Python team, have done to make Python easier to install on Windows" after the next update.

TLDR: Typing 'python' in Windows' Command Prompt will take you to the Microsoft Store's Python page: Microsoft has been involved with the Python community for over twelve years, and currently employ four of the key contributors to the language and primary runtime. The growth of Python has been incredible, as it finds homes among data scientists, web developers, system administrators, and students, and roughly half of this work is already happening on Windows. And yet, Python developers on Windows find themselves facing more friction than on other platforms. It's been widely known for many years that Windows is the only mainstream operating system that does not include a Python interpreter out of the box... So we made things easier.

First, we helped the community release their distribution of Python to the Microsoft Store. This version of Python is fully maintained by the community, installs easily on Windows 10, and automatically makes common commands such as python, pip and idle available (as well as equivalents with version numbers python3 and python3.7, for all the commands, just like on Linux). Finally, with the May 2019 Windows Update, we are completing the picture. While Python continues to remain completely independent from the operating system, every install of Windows will include python and python3 commands that take you directly to the Python store page. We believe that the Microsoft Store package is perfect for users starting out with Python, and given our experience with and participation in the Python community we are pleased to endorse it as the default choice.

And while this fix is only for Python, the Microsoft post adds that "Over time, we plan to extend similar integration to other developer tools and reduce the getting started friction."
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Microsoft Adds Python To Windows -- Sort Of

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  • thanks... now how are you going to deal with alternative installs from other software vendors...

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Like Windows wasn't bad enough already.

  • by Barny ( 103770 )

    All I have to do is link my PC to a Microsoft account?

    How about fuck you, Microsoft?

  • > python and python3

    Interesting that “python” still implies version 2, as it does on the MacOS and Linux versions I've used.

    • Well, that's what happens when you break backward compatibility. You can't assume that the command 'python' means the same thing between versions if they can't run the same scripts. I'm still a bit amazed how disruptive the 2 -> 3 upgrade ended up being overall.

    • yes, python 3 is a different language with different rules, breaks python 2 things

  • If I wanted Python, I would install it, and not from the mickeysoft store.

    In fact, I did.

    I don't need mickeysoft to hold my cock for me while I piss.

  • I just came for the comments, which I'm sure will be informative and respectful.

  • what a great idea

    make something literally invisible, whitespace, to be SEMANTICALLY SIGNIFICANT.

    fuck python

    bring back pascal

    yeah i know it's not funny to hate a language but python is a shitshow and if you like it you must be stupid

    • Any major library has python bindings today - this, with the interpretative nature of the language, make the python interpreter a big player for prototyping (wich occurs in most researchs)
      • by gTsiros ( 205624 )

        not that pascal is faster in both execution and compilation. Its compilation is so fast that it doesn't matter that it's not interpreted.

        it's also a standard, it's mature, full-featured IDEs exist, it is VERY well structured.

        but sure. python is easy.

        it's not the first time the majority pick the stupid choice.

        • the weak-typed vars and the indentation (that considers blanks...) bothers me too... and IDE maybe is not needed in the research context :D
    • by antdude ( 79039 )

      No! Bring back BASIC and LOGO! :P

  • Tactic to attract developers, seems to me: "Linux distros have it, so we need it as part of Windoze!"
  • The snag is that this takes you to the Microsoft Store. You can't get anything there without a Microsoft account. It would be better if it pointed you to a web site unencumbered by monetization.

  • It's a Windows store app, so it is vastly inferior to the manually installed Python. The Microsoft store can die in a fire and it will NOT be missed.
  • How much is Python worth from the Windows Store. Every other OS tool offered on the store costs money, so I just have to assume MS have found a way to monetize this
  • This is a preinstalled advertisement, which appears to be the primary feature of Windows these days. It's preinstalled where people may stumble upon it, which we've seen in Solaris before - it came with a "cc" script that told you "language optional software package not installed". This is why autoconf and friends can't just check that you have the command, but need to check if it works. Scripts will now go from failing for an obvious reason to popping up Windows Store whilst partially failing silently (spe
  • Hey, remember when Microsoft decided to write their own version of popular languages with .Net bindings? I'm still waiting to see if they can churn out IronPython 3 before Python 2.x is EOLed.

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