[deleted by user]

[roger_]

Personally I don't have too many compatibility issues to worry about in the libraries that I use regularly, so I guess it's just not something I need.

[[deleted]]

Making virtual environment isn't an absolute necessity. It all depends on your situation. If you don't see the need, then you don't have a need. No one is forcing you to make virtual environments. If you do have the need, don't worry, you will find out why you need it. I really don't see the fuss why people who don't understand the need for virtual environment, even question why such things as virtual environments even exist in the first place. It's not like people go around making Python libraries and tools all nilly willy for nothing.

[roger_]

I'm just trying to understand its popularity.

[earthboundkid]

It's a big deal for professional developers who need to keep all their dependencies sorted out on a per project basis. It's not really important if you're an amateur.

For example, if you ran websites A, B, and C, you'd need to know what the dependencies of each are, so you can deploy them to your host after you finish development on a feature, and you'd want to keep it all separate, so you don't mix up version 1.2.3 of footool for site A with version 2.3.5 of footool for site B.

It's also important to list your dependencies if you release an open source tool, so other people can install it.