How to Install Python (MacOS, Windows and Linux)

In this Python for Beginners tutorial chapter, you will learn how to install Python on MacOS and Windows.

For each, we will look at the installation options.

Install Python on Windows

Python can be installed from the Python Software Foundation website at python.org or via a third party Python distribution such as Miniconda or Anaconda.


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Here are the two main ways to install Python on Windows:

Anaconda distributes Python along with other interesting things such as R, RStudio, Jupyter Notebooks and preinstalled packages for Python and R.

However, it also comes with increased complexity. While I have started with Anaconda, I ended up preferring using Python with pip and I moved away from Anaconda.

Here is a short video showing you how to install Python with the official installer.

Install Python on MacOS

There are three main ways to install Python on MacOS:

  • XCode (preferred)
  • Package Installer
  • Homebrew

Here is how to install Python on MacOS:

Installing Python on Linux

Installing Python on Linux is somewhat similar to installing Python on MacOS. You can either:

  • Install With a Package Manager
  • Install with Homebrew

To install Python on Ubuntu, Linux Mint, or Debian, you can use apt.

$ apt install python3 python-is-python3

This will install Python as well as the python-is-python3 package which converts the python command to use the python3 location.

To install with Homebrew, you can follow the tutorial on how to install Python with MacOS and you will see how to install Homebrew and Python.

Succeeded in Installing Python?

Congratulations, you now have installed Python and are ready to learn python.

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