I’ve gone ahead and initiated a conversation with Conda folks on their discussion forum (it’s on Matrix, in case you are wondering, and I can’t figure out how to link to it).
I presented them with three directions that the pip + conda pieces of this could take:
- Adopt the same behaviour as OS Python installations, moving to require virtual environments by default.
- Add the opt-out to conda environments (except
base). - Change nothing (i.e. withdraw this PEP because conda)
While the discussion is still ongoing, the general sense is towards the second bullet, which can be achieved using pip’s configuration stack + opt out.
I still need to catch up on the single vs multiple virtual environments aspect of this (I’ll reiterate that picking a default doesn’t make other approaches illegal or whatever, and they’re not mutually exclusive workflows either).