[oezi]

As someone new to Python: what was ever the appeal of conda that uv doesn't satisfy?

[aeroevan]

conda doesn't just package python libraries, but also the C/Fortran/other bits that the scipy stack often depended on. With the rise of binary wheels that is less needed though

[kjkjadksj]

Fundamentally it is a fresh usr/bin per environment with all that can go into that. Not just python tooling. R packages. Binaries. All of that. Env can be exported as a yaml file and trivially shared without appending some header to all scripts you write.

[jaimergp]

I think it's more about tool X vs Y, but about ecosystems and packaging approaches; in other words Python packaging (which has tools like pip, uv or poetry) vs conda packaging (which has tools like conda itself, mamba or pixi). https://pypackaging-native.github.io/ is an excellent starting point to learn about the limitations on Python packaging for native dependencies and compiled extensions.

[aldanor]

Distributing non Python packages via the same channel that Python packages may depend on. E.g, h5py depending on libhdf5.

[N1H1L]

As someone using Python from 2017, there was no uv then, and conda worked fine but was glacially slow.