[bvar10]

Serious question: What is the difference between virtual environments and just having several Python installs like:

  /home/foo/a/usr/bin/python3
  /home/foo/b/usr/bin/python2

Python is so fast to compile and install that I just install as many throwaway Pythons as needed.

I do not recall any isolation issues between those installs, unlike with conda or venv, which are both subtly broken on occasion.

But I dislike opaque automation in general.

[luhn]

That basically is what a venv is, an entirely separate Python install. Some files are linked rather than being copied, but it looks the same. venv gets you a couple extra conveniences, like the activation script.

I wouldn't call venv "opaque automation," there's not much magic going on there.