Introduction
Python is a very powerful language, as well as it that is a very interesting one to learn, when you research on the internet you will find so many cool applications of python creating some really cool projects. its great to use for data analytics as well so is a really good language to have under your belt if you work with data.
You can use python on both windows and linux, this getting started page will outline how to install and do that on both. It will even show you how you can install a linux instance on your windows laptop so you can test with both!.
Windows
- First step is to head over to the python downloads page and install a version of python. Starting out it is always better to install the latest version. At writing this it is 3.10.6
https://www.python.org/downloads/
- Double click your executable to start the download process
- I always like to customize the installation mainly so i can choose where python installs, as if you work with multiple versions this can be handy to separate them easily.
- Keep all the optional features
- I like to tick the additional “Add Python to environment variables” makes it easier when trying to run from the command line. I then choose a customized location. I have a python folder on my C drive where i can download multiple versions, then click install.
- Once installation has completed open a command line or powershell window and run the below command to open a python session
Linux
I’m not a huge linux user if I’m honest, what I’ve learned is from working with MongoDB, i am very much a windows user through and through, but i understand the power and use of linux, so it always good to have your hands in both.
- Open up the microsoft store and search for ubuntu then select get
- Once downloaded select open and wait for the configuration screen to load
- You will be asked to create a username and password and then your linux setup is complete
Python will come already installed on linux, however we want to check what version we have. Run the below
1
python3 --version
