Hacker News Reader

It’s always baffled me that the default configuration of conda takes the liberty of contaminating the default shell environment. It feels incredibly bold to assume that because I install conda I want it to exist in every context in which I use my computer. It’s the terminal equivalent to an adware “toolbar” installing itself in your browser.

View on HN

Thanks for making this point. People who work on Windows may not realize how aggressive and disruptive Anaconda is on macOS. If you open a terminal and run the `lipo` command that macOS gives you to get information about a file, you will be running a version of that command that Anaconda installed, not the one that Apple manages and updates. And `lipo` is just one of many such examples.

Based on limited testing on Windows, Anaconda does not seem to do anything comparable on that OS.

Not only that, installation edits some of your dot files without ever telling you or asking permission.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com