Why does ActivePython exist?

Question

What's ActivePython actually about?

From what I've read it's just standard Python with openssl and pyWin32 (on Win). No big deal I guess, I could install them in matter of minutes, and most people don't need them anyway. All other mentioned libraries (zlib, bzip2, sqlite3, Tkinter, ElementTree, ctypes, multiprocessing) are part of core Python distribution.

Next up, the tag-line "ActivePython is the industry-standard Python distribution", isn't core Python distribution "industry-standard" (whatever that means?)?

And the weirdest thing, is that ActiveState bundles it with crappy PythonWin, and not their own most-awesome Python editor/IDE, Komodo. What gives?

I actually never got to installing ActivePython, so maybe I don't know something, but it seems pretty irrelevant, and I see the name quite often on forums or here.

Answer 1

The main feature is that you can buy a paid support contract for it.

Why does Red Hat Enterprise Linux exist when you can compile everything yourself? 8-)

For many businesses, the combination of proven Open Source software and a support contract from people who build, package and test that software, is an excellent proposition.

Answer 2

It's a packaging, or "distribution", of Python, with some extras -- not (anywhere) quite as "Sumo" as Enthought's HUGE distro of "Python plus everything", but still in a similar vein (and it first appeared much earlier).

I don't think you're missing anything in particular, except perhaps the fact that David Ascher (Python enthusiast and my coauthor in the Python Cookbook) used to be CTO at ActiveState (and so no doubt internally pushed Python to go with other dynamic languages ActiveState focuses on) but he's gone now (he's CEO at the Mozilla-owned firm that deals with email and similar forms of communication -- ThunderBird and the like, in terms of programs).

No doubt some firms prefer to purchase a distribution with commercially available support contracts, like ActivePython, just because that's the way some purchasing departments in several enterprises (and/or their IT depts) are used to work. Unless you care about such issues, I don't think you're missing anything by giving ActiveState's Python distro a pass;-). [[I feel similarly about costly Enterprise distros of Linux, vs. Debian or Ubuntu or the like -- but then I'm not in Purchasing, nor in an IT department, nor do I work for a very traditional enterprise anyway;-)]]

Answer 3

ActiveState has a long tradition contributing Windows support to Python, Tcl, and Perl: by hiring key developers (like Mark Hammond, for some time), by fixing bugs specific to Windows, and having employees contribute fixes back, and by being sponsors of the Python Software Foundation.

While it is true that the distribution they produce is fairly similar to mine, it's as RichieHindle says: you can get paid support from ActiveState (but not from me).

Answer 4

I've been using ActivePerl for years and when I made the switch to Python, I very naturally downloaded ActivePython. Never had any problems with the Active* distributions - they're robust, come with a few useful libraries that the vanilla core Python doesn't have. They also come bundled with a .CHM Python documentation compilation that's very useful.

Answer 5

Here is an email to python-list I wrote on this a long while ago:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2007-July/619681.html

Mostly those details are still true. Also, all the other responses I've seen to this question are fair.

Note that as of release 2.6.3.7 ActivePython includes PyPM (similar to PPM for ActivePerl) to help with installing Python packages -- the hoped for benefit over "easy_install" and "pip" (and others) to be the installation of popular binary packages.