alt Hacker NewsIf I want to install Python on Windows and start using pip, I grab an installer from python.org and follow a wizard. On Linux, I almost certainly already have it anyway.
If I want to bootstrap from uv on Windows, the simplest option offered involves Powershell.
Either way, I can write quite a bit with just the standard library before I have to understand what uv really is (or what pip is). At that point, yes, the pip UX is quite a bit messier. But I already have Python, and pip itself was also trivially installable (e.g. via the standard library `ensurepip`, or from a Linux system package manager — yes, still using the command line, but this hypothetical is conditioned on being a Linux user).
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Traditional Windows install didn’t include things Microsoft doesn’t make. But, any PC distributor could always include Python as part of their base Windows install with all the other stuff that bloats the typical third party Windows installs. They don’t which indicates the market doesn’t want it. Your indictment of the lack of Python out of the box is less on Windows than on the “distro” served by PC manufacturers
Not many normal people want to install python. Instead, author of the software they are trying to use wants them to install python. So they follow readme, download windows installer as you say, pip this pipx, pipx that conda, conda this requirements.txt, and five minutes later they have magic error telling that tensorflow version they are installing is not compatible with pytorch version they are installing or some such.
The aftertaste python leaves is lasting-disgusting.