Time for action – installing Python on different operating systems

NumPy has binary installers for Windows, various Linux distributions, and Mac OS X. There is also a source distribution, if you prefer that. You need to have Python 2.4.x or above installed on your system. We will go through the various steps required to install Python on the following operating systems:

1. Debian and Ubuntu: Python might already be installed on Debian and Ubuntu but the development headers are usually not. On Debian and Ubuntu install python and python-dev with the following commands:

   sudo apt-get install python
   sudo apt-get install python-dev
   

2. Windows: The Windows Python installer can be found at www.python.org/download. On this website, we can also find installers for Mac OS X and source tarballs for Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X.

3. Mac: Python comes pre-installed on Mac OS X. We can also get Python through MacPorts, Fink, or similar projects. We can install, for instance, the Python 2.7 port by running the following command:

   sudo port install python27
   

   LAPACK does not need to be present but, if it is, NumPy will detect it and use it during the installation phase. It is recommended to install LAPACK for serious numerical analysis as it has useful numerical linear algebra functionality.

What just happened?

We installed Python on Debian, Ubuntu, Windows, and the Mac.