[int_19h]

That sounds like a major problem with Ubuntu, rather than with Python or pip.

On Windows, meanwhile, the standard Python installer gets all this set up properly in like three clicks. Better yet, because it installs per-user by default, "pip install" just works. And if you still choose to install it globally, it will fail, but it will tell you exactly what you need to do to make it work:

    Could not install packages due to an EnvironmentError: [WinError 5] Access is denied: ...
    Consider using the `--user` option or check the permissions.

One can't help but wonder how we ended up in a situation where the most popular Linux distro somehow does Python worse than Windows.

[angry_octet]

Don't despair, in the Anaconda installed with visual studio (now a default) you can't update or install packages without being admin! And if you install Anaconda again it merges the start menu entries and you can't tell which is which...

[YeGoblynQueenne]

Eh, that has always been the case for windows vs linux, that you don't have to compile anything yourself because there is always an installer that will deploy precompiled binaries for whatever you want to install (except for when there isn't, because nobody has compiled it for windows, at which point you're in deeper shit) (or except when something installs itself but doesn't update your envars, so you have to do it yourself, which kind of defeats the purpose of the whole "installer" thing).

[int_19h]

You don't need to compile anything yourself on Linux either - that's what package managers are for.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

Iiish. For small projects or when you want to get development versions etc that are not in a distro's repos it's pretty common to have to do a make-configure.

Then again, with Python in particular, I have often had errors either with pip-install, or after "successful" installation, for various reasons.

[int_19h]

In this case, we were talking about Python itself. I don't see any particular reason why most people should need to build it themselves, whether on Windows or on Linux. Packages are another matter, but here the issue is the way Python itself is packaged on Ubuntu.