Bundler is not a "node_modules" style setup. It does not require dependencies to be in a local path (although they can be, the default is they live in a system-wide location, and this does not limit functionality). It also does not support more than one version of a dependency in the same execution environment (as node_modules does) -- that really would be impossible in ruby too.

It's possible something about python's design would make the bundler approach impossible, I don't know. But it's not "dependencies are installed globally" alone, as that's true of ruby too.

We would probably all benefit in understanding better how these things are handled in other environments. And I include myself here. I think ruby's bundler really set a new standard for best practices here, and many subsequent managers (like cargo) were heavily influenced by it, although many don't realize it. But meanwhile many don't even realize what they are missing or what's possible.

Like the basic idea of having a specification of top-level dependencies (including allowable ranges) separate from a "lockfile" of exact versions in use of ALL dependencies... is just so hugely useful I never want to do without it, and I think is compatible with just about any architecture, and yet somehow JS is still only slowly catching on to it.