The best thing to happen to the Python ecosystem would be something that unites pip and conda. Conda is not going anywhere given how many packages depend on non-python binaries, especially in enterprise settings.
The best thing to happen to the Python ecosystem would be something that unites pip and conda. Conda is not going anywhere given how many packages depend on non-python binaries, especially in enterprise settings.
You might be interested in Pixi: https://prefix.dev/ It uses uv under the hood for Python dependencies, while allowing you to also manage Conda dependencies in the same manifest (pixi.toml). The ergonomics are really nice and intuitive imo, and we're on our way to replace our Poetry and Conda usage with only Pixi for Python/C++ astrodynamics projects. The workspace-centric approach along with native lockfiles made most of our package management issues go away. I highly recommend it! (Not affiliated anyhow, other than contributing with a simple PR for fun)
I'm not sure if you're aware, but there's the Wheel Variants proposal [0] that the WheelNext initiative is working through that was presented at PyCon 2025 [1][2], which hopes to solve some of those problems.
uv has implemented experimental support, which they announced here [3].
[0] https://wheelnext.dev/proposals/pepxxx_wheel_variant_support...
[1] https://us.pycon.org/2025/schedule/presentation/100/
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Oki8vAWb1Q
[3] https://astral.sh/blog/wheel-variants
The standard approach nowadays is to vendor the binaries, as e.g. Numpy does. This works just fine with pip.
I'm interested if you have any technical documentation about how conda environments are structured. It would be nice to be able to interact with them. But I suspect the main problem is that if you use a non-conda tool to put something into a conda environment, there needs to be a way to make conda properly aware of the change. Fundamentally it's the same issue as with trying to use pip in the system environment on Linux, which will interfere with the system package manager (leading to the PEP 668 protections).
I had this discussion briefly with a buddy who uses python exclusively for his career in austronomy. He was lamenting the pains of colaborting around Conda and seemed convinced it was irreplaceable. Being that I'm not familiar with the exact limitations Conda is providing for, Im curious if you could shed some insight here. Does nix not technically solve the issue? I understand this isn't solely a technical problem and Nix adoption in this space isn't likely, but I'm curious none-the-less!