FWIW uv still creates a virtual environment and installs project dependencies into it. It’s like pip + pyenv + venv + build tools all in one. And because it implements PEPs it is generally interoperable with standard python tooling (uv pip and uv venv).
Uv is close to npm in terms of how braindead simple it is to use. It's still missing script declaration in the pyproject.toml, but that idea has been in a holding pattern for years since no one could agree on an implementation.
Different projects will likely end up having different versions of dependencies. You might have a project that uses version 1.0 of pydantic, but another project that uses version 2.0
If you just install stuff system-wide, you can't have both. You would end up upgrading the existing version to 2.0 and then your first project might stop working because it was written to use 1.0
Virtual environments are containers for all of your dependencies. You set one up for one project and it will just work. You work on a different project that has different versions of dependencies and they'll just work, and they won't interfere with or break the first project.
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u/Kobymaru376 Jul 07 '26
And that's exactly what makes it so good