Basically I have a webfaction space (assume for the purposes of this question that its free).
I am trying to learn python by created some simple web applications on Google App Engine using Eclipse + Pydev for development.
So far I have some basic functionality working in App Engine, though I have had some frustration with some library imports not working and whatnot (this may not be app engine specific).
So, is it worth it to switch now to webfaction, and leave GAE?
I am trying to learn python by created some simple web applications on Google App Engine using Eclipse + Pydev for development.
This seems reasonable. Nothing wrong with using GAE, Eclipse, and Pydev to learn to do Python web dev.
So far I have some basic functionality working in App Engine, though I have had some frustration with some library imports not working and whatnot (this may not be app engine specific).
So, is it worth it to switch now to webfaction, and leave GAE?
You haven't provided much of a reason to leave GAE now that you've started there. I think that "some frustration" is normal for learning on any platform.
Beyond that I think this could descend into a general GAE good for learning vs. GAE bad for learning discussion.
So let me get that started...
Since GAE is a 'Platform as a service' (PaaS) it makes deployment and maintenance very simple. You can get right to coding and not worry about the platform. As well, this platform provides some services, such as e-mail and authentication that make those tasks very easy. For example, on first pass you can just make use of their authentication API (supports Google and now openID authentication I think) and leave more complicated authentication options for later.
On the other hand, this platform is kinda' non-standard. The datastore is the main issue and that affects Django. That's a pain because it means that the Django running on GAE is slightly different then the standard Django and the Django docs that you are reading might not apply for GAE, etc.
Here is a current thread about getting started with Django on GAE (which addresses the datastore issue): http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine-python/browse_thread/thread/8d1c945d27b6305f
Hope that helps.