Not the OP but does this actually package CUDA and the CUDA toolchain itself or just the libraries around it? Can it work only with PyTorch or "any" other library?
Conda packaging system and the registry is capable of understanding things like ABI and binary compatibility. It can resolve not only Python dependencies but the binary dependencies too. Think more like dnf, yum, apt but OS-agnostic including Windows.
As far as I know, (apart from blindly bundling wheels), neither PyPI nor Python packaging tools have the knowledge of ABIs or purely C/C++/Rust binary dependencies.
With Conda you can even use it to just have OS-agnostic C compiler toolchains, no Python or anything. I actually use Pixi for shipping an OS-agnostic libprotobuf version for my Rust programs. It is better than containers since you can directly interact with the OS like the Windows GUI and device drivers or Linux compositors. Conda binaries are native binaries.
Until PyPI and setuptools understand the binary intricacies, I don't think it will be able to fully replace Conda. This may mean that they need to have an epoch and API break in their packaging format and the registry.
uv, poetry etc. can be very useful when the binary dependencies are shallow and do not deeply integrate or you are simply happy living behind the Linux kernel and a container and distro binaries are fulfilling your needs.
When you need complex hierarchies of package versions where half of them are not compiled with your current version of the base image and you need to bootstrap half a distro (on all OS kernels too!), Conda is a lifesaver. There is nothing like it.
If I find myself reaching a point where I would need to deal with ABIs and binary compatiblity, I pretty much stop there and say "is my workload so important that I need to recompile half the world to support it" and the answer (for me) is always no.
okanat|4 months ago
Conda packaging system and the registry is capable of understanding things like ABI and binary compatibility. It can resolve not only Python dependencies but the binary dependencies too. Think more like dnf, yum, apt but OS-agnostic including Windows.
As far as I know, (apart from blindly bundling wheels), neither PyPI nor Python packaging tools have the knowledge of ABIs or purely C/C++/Rust binary dependencies.
With Conda you can even use it to just have OS-agnostic C compiler toolchains, no Python or anything. I actually use Pixi for shipping an OS-agnostic libprotobuf version for my Rust programs. It is better than containers since you can directly interact with the OS like the Windows GUI and device drivers or Linux compositors. Conda binaries are native binaries.
Until PyPI and setuptools understand the binary intricacies, I don't think it will be able to fully replace Conda. This may mean that they need to have an epoch and API break in their packaging format and the registry.
uv, poetry etc. can be very useful when the binary dependencies are shallow and do not deeply integrate or you are simply happy living behind the Linux kernel and a container and distro binaries are fulfilling your needs.
When you need complex hierarchies of package versions where half of them are not compiled with your current version of the base image and you need to bootstrap half a distro (on all OS kernels too!), Conda is a lifesaver. There is nothing like it.
saagarjha|4 months ago
dekhn|4 months ago
kombine|4 months ago