Part 1 of our series "Conda Is Not PyPI: Understanding Conda as a User-Space Distribution".

This is the first article in a three-part series exploring the fundamental differences between conda and PyPI, and why understanding these differences matters for your development workflow. Conda is not just another Python package manager—it's a multi-language, user-space distribution system. In this series, we'll unpack what that means, explore where conda fits in the broader packaging landscape (alongside pip, Docker, and Nix), and show you how to think about conda's role in your toolchain.

Part 1 (this article) clarifies why conda is a distribution, not a package registry, and what that distinction means in practice.

The Q4 2025 conda CLI roadmap highlights improvements coming soon, including sharded repodata support for faster installs, and work to improve integration with PyPI ecosystem.

The conda steering council has decided to archive the conda Discourse forum. Users should refer to our Zulip chat instance instead.

The September 2025 releases included updates to conda and conda-build! 🎉 Both have been released to defaults and conda-forge channels.

The July 2025 releases included updates to conda, conda-build, constructor, and menuinst! 🎉 All of these have been released to both defaults and conda-forge channels.

The May 2025 releases included updates to conda, conda-build, conda-libmamba-solver, and conda-index! 🎉 All of these have been released to both main and conda-forge channels.

The March 2025 releases included updates to conda, conda-build, conda-libmamba-solver, conda-index, and constructor! 🎉 All of these have been released to both main and conda-forge channels.

The January 2025 releases included updates to conda, conda-build, and conda-libmamba-solver! 🎉 All of these have been released to both main and conda-forge channels.

The November 2024 releases included updates to conda, conda-build, and conda-libmamba-solver! 🎉 All of these have been released to both main and conda-forge channels.

The recent approval of a new recipe format (v1) by the Conda Steering Council via CEP-13 and CEP-14 marks an important milestone in the evolution of package management in the conda ecosystem. While the community embraces the potential improvements that come with the new format, we acknowledge that the v1 recipe format is still undergoing development in rattler-build. Consequently, the v0 recipe format remains widely in use, emphasizing the need to balance innovation with support for legacy systems.