Until now I just deal with that by always explicitly specifying the whole path to the python executable. Granted my needs are very run-of-the-mill, but wouldn't that suffice for many people? I've tried several times over the last few months to get into all this python environment/package stuff, but it all feels like yak shaving... much like the hours and hours I spend customizing vim years ago, which were fun (at that time) but which weren't 'productive' in that they'll never in my lifetime pay themselves off.