There are multiple Python distributions, starting with the original, vanilla Python, which is accessible at https://www.python.org/. Data analysis, however, adds unique requirements for packaging (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjXJLVINsSA&feature=youtu.be&t=3555). In this book, we use Anaconda, which is an open source and free Python distribution, designed for data science and machine learning. Anaconda's main features include a smooth installation of data science packages (many of which run C and Fortran languages under the hood) and conda, which is a great package and environment manager (we will talk more about environments and conda later in Chapter 9, Shell, Git, Conda, and More – at Your Command). Conveniently, the Anaconda distribution installs all the packages (https://docs.anaconda.com/anaconda/packages/pkg-docs/) we need in this book and many more!
In order to install Anaconda, follow these steps:
- First, go to the Anaconda distribution web page at https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/.
- Select the Python 3.7 graphical installer for your platform and download it (at the time of writing, there is no graphical installer for Linux, so you'll have to use the one for the command line). The following screenshot shows what the interface looks like—we've marked the link we're interested in with dotted lines:
- Run the installation. Keep all settings as default. When you're asked if you want to install PyCharm, select no (until you personally want to, of course, but we won't use PyCharm in this book):
Voila! Now we have Python up and running! Next, let's download all the materials for this book.