Anaconda vs. WinPython

[SixString]

I have been using Python(x,y) and WinPython, and I considering trying the Anaconda distribution on Windows.  The short-term benefit of Anaconda for me is to get SciPy 0.14 on 64-bit Python 3.  The disadvantage of Anaconda for me is that I have to pay for MKL optimizations and deal with license headaches.  What are other disadvantages of Anaconda on Windows compared to WinPython?

[stonebig]

Hi Sixstring,

I tried Anaconda one year ago on a 'old' pc, the sort you find at my school of interest :

  - it was looking more slow than Winpython (probably because of the 2go Ram limitation of the PC)

  - it was not 'python3' friendly, so would necessitate an internet connexion to finalize in python3,
   (python 3 direct support has changed since 2014-05-29, http://continuum.io/blog/anaconda-2-released, so point may be less relevant now)

  - it is not a replacement of an usb installation, but you can create different virtual environnements,

  - and you download a binary with only a md5 key to check.

Time has made these drawbacks weaker.

[Sol Simpson]

I have been using recent (last month or two) version of Anaconda on Win and Linux and find that the newer versions work very well in terms of initial install as well as the use of the conda cmd line program to update or install new packages. I tried it a year ago or so and quickly went back to winpython and Canopy (for Linux); so it has improved a lot.

As bigstone mentioned, it is not like WinPython in terms of running as a self contained python distro that does not affect the usage another installed version of Python. It is self contained in terms of only installing files to one user level folder, but not in terms of interaction with the sys path. You need to either add the anaconda install location to your system path so it is picked up as your default python, or basically run commands like are in the winpython env.bat when you start a cmd prompt so that the current terminal session uses anaconda. 

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[SixString]

I uninstalled Python(x,y) and installed Anaconda3 v2.0.1 for 64-bit Python 3.4 on Windows.  My intention was to make Anaconda the Python version registered to the OS.  What I got was Anaconda folders added to the PATH, but Python extensions were not associated Python, and drag-n-drop of an input file onto a Python script no longer executes the script with the input file as an argument.  I am having trouble getting drag-n-drop to work with Anaconda.  I wonder if the problem is because I am using a 64-bit version of Python in Anaconda.

A question for WinPython users (so I don't have to uninstall Anaconda): if you use the WinPython Control Panel to register one installation of WinPython to Windows, does drag-n-drop work?

[SixString]

I found a solution to make drag-n-drop work with Anaconda:
https://groups.google.com/a/continuum.io/forum/#!topic/anaconda/Q0AoY2YEk0w

I also found a way to make settings for each Anaconda environment independent of other Anaconda environments and the OS-registered Python:
https://groups.google.com/a/continuum.io/forum/#!topic/anaconda/YCociXQ_VtY

A user could modify my batch files to point the HOME environment variable to a settings subfolder under the programs folder for each Anaconda environment, just like WinPython does.  Thus, Anaconda can be adapted to be portable (work on a USB flash drive).

The only disadvantage left for me with Anaconda is that users have to pay for MKL optimizations.