Is it stable to use for Python and Python packages installation?

[HeWhoHeWho]

Anything different from using the standalone installer? Will I still be able to use pip to install python packages?

How much better it is to use this installer compared to the standalone installer?

[zooba]

You currently have to use python -m pip or py -m pip to launch pip, but a future update will generate executables for any installed scripts. The general recommendation would be to start with py -m venv ... and create a virtual environment, then activate that and use the tools directly on your PATH. After Python is installed, the runtime is exactly the same as from the regular installer.

The standalone installer will stop after 3.15, and the new one supports a long way back, so you can switch whenever you like. For 3.16 and later, there won't be a standalone installer, so at that point it'll be much better to use the install manager.

As for other reasons why it's better or worse, that'll depend a lot on what you assume it'll do and what you need to do. Some features are removed, some new ones are added. Our focus is on supporting "simple" uses (such as "I just want Python to run a script") and enabling complex uses (such as "I need a specific version bundled into my own application"), and are leaving other scenarios to other tools and distributions (such as "I need to install Python for all users on this machine and fully control the packages they can access" or "I want to pretend this package is a standalone tool").

[HeWhoHeWho]

Thanks @zooba. I seldom use CLI to work on my python project.

My only use cases are: 1. install Python for main user (myself) and 2. install and upgrade Python packages via pip install / pip install --upgrade. Will this tool satisfy my need?

[zooba]

What do you use other than a CLI?

But yes, it'll work. You'll just have to use python -m pip or py -m pip until #225 gets released (sometime next year), though if you don't use the CLI then you likely won't ever enable those extra commands anyway, and so the -m variant will still be required. (Though if you're currently using pip then it means you're configuring PATH already, so do that with the new tool and you will enable the extra commands - this is why I'm interested in your workflow, since it sounds like you are using the CLI despite saying that you don't...)

[HeWhoHeWho]

I only use CLI for pip install or upgrade python packages using python -m pip install --upgrade, that's all the tasks I have in CLI environment.

For any script development, I use VS Code.

For python installation, I use the standalone installer. Hence I'm checking if my workflow would be the same if I were to use Python Install Manager.

[zooba]

Yes, the workflow should be the same when using from VS Code. If not, report it to VS Code first, since they may have done something non-standard (the install manager sets the same PEP 514 registry keys as the old installer, so if VS Code is relying on them, it'll be identical).