A lot of the comments here seem to me to be based on a confusion between Python as a development tool for users and developers, and Python as a base operating system component. These are two very different roles that the language fills.
IMHO confusing these roles and providing, or expecting one install of a language to fit both simultaneously has been something that's irritated me about Unix-like OSes for a long time, much as I love them.
Yes I know there are plenty of tools for installing dev versions of tools side by side with the system components. IMHO doing so should be the default assumption unless you really are developing system scripts or scripts that you explicitly expect to be limited in scope to that OS.
I try to never use any distro installed Python or libraries when developing Python software. In fact, I even went to the trouble of creating a self-contained Python build that had no dependencies whatsoever on distro-installed libraries. That way I have even more control over the foundation of my applications than you get with virtualenv.
Next time I do some Python development (other than system admin scripts) I will be using Python 3.4. And I will likely also create a self-contained build of that as well.
IMHO confusing these roles and providing, or expecting one install of a language to fit both simultaneously has been something that's irritated me about Unix-like OSes for a long time, much as I love them.
Yes I know there are plenty of tools for installing dev versions of tools side by side with the system components. IMHO doing so should be the default assumption unless you really are developing system scripts or scripts that you explicitly expect to be limited in scope to that OS.