Glad to see this getting discussion. I hate virtualenvs for several of the reasons mentioned in the article - extra state to keep track of, and potentially installing packages to the wrong location if I failed to keep track of it.

I always just force my user packages to work. I usually only use numpy/scipy/matplotlib and occasionally a few others so its not that hard, but some sort of npm like experience would be welcome. I know that many are struggling with these environments.