Snakes
Any python programmer worth his salt knows that the name of his beloved programming language is derived not from the snake but from Monty Python. That did not stop the company formerly known as Continuum Analytics from naming their python solutions after other snakes. In this post we will take a look at this confusing terminology.
Let's start with the most ambiguous of the bunch: anaconda. The website https://www.anaconda.com would tell you that it is a data science platform. That could mean a lot of things. If we stick with their free tier offering, we can call it a python distribution: a collection of tools that makes it easier to get python along with some packages up and running on your computer.
After a while, this distribution became so popular that in 2017 the company behind it decided to change its name from Continuum Analytics to Anaconda Inc.
Why stop there though? Giving three things the same name is better than just two. That is why Anaconda Inc.'s python package repository is also called anaconda.
All things considered, we should be thankful that they named their package manager conda instead of reusing the anaconda name for the fourth time.
The other related products fortunately all have different - but related - names. Here is a quick rundown:
- Anaconda Inc.: the company behind most of these tools
- anaconda: the python distribution
- anaconda: the package repository
- miniconda: the minimalistic python distribution
- conda-forge: the community-driven package repository
- miniforge: miniconda with conda-forge as single, default channel
- conda: the package manager
- condabuild: the package builder
- mamba: the faster package manager, using conda CLI syntax
- micromamba: even faster than mamba, but with different syntax
- boa: the mamba-based package builder
- mambaforge: miniforge with mamba preinstalled
Fun fact: pythons, boas and mambas are snakes from three completely different families, evolutionary speaking.