 Let's stop the hate and the prejudice when it comes to programming languages, specifically when it comes to Python, because I don't know when this became cool, but nowadays, anytime somebody talks about Python as a programming language, or even when somebody talks about a piece of software that just happens to be written in Python, like the other day I made a video about Vert Manager, which is written in Python, and inevitably the anti-Python brigade shows up and, oh, Python is slow, Python's horrible, nothing should ever be written in Python, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And even more astounding is when I get these comments from people that, hey, this program you're showing looks cool, you know, such as Vert Manager or Qtile or whatever it happens to be, whatever piece of software is written in Python, they say, hey, man, that program looks really cool, but I won't use it because it's written in Python. WTF, right? I mean, I don't get it. I'm like, I'm a nerd, and I don't understand this at all. Like, I can't even fathom how somebody could even think like this because these people, they're protesting a piece of software because of the language that happens to be written in. Really? I mean, and that makes this, what really makes this funny is that these comments are not even being left by developers or programmers because I interact with a lot of developers and programmers, professional devs and programmers. I'm not one myself, but having this YouTube channel and sometimes I get into nerdy topics, you know, I often interact with people that are in that industry. And when I talk about Python to these people, even if they're not Python developers, they understand Python, they know it, they respect it. I've never heard anybody actually trash Python that was actually in the industry. And I think part of that is because these developers and these programmers, they know better than to spout this nonsense, this garbage. Python is slow, Python is horrible, Python has no purpose, right? Because these guys know Python actually has real world use cases. And in many cases, Python offers real benefits over some of the alternatives. So how exactly did we get here? Because this thing is really taking on a life of its own, right? This Python is slow and horrible meme, right? Well, it's not necessarily a meme that Python is slow. It's true that Python is slower when doing mathematical computations compared to faster languages like C or old school languages like Fortran, or even some of the more hipster modern languages like Haskell, you know, those are much faster languages when it comes to really crunching large numbers. Now, because Python is slower at crunching numbers, that does mean that Python isn't appropriate for some tasks. Let me repeat, some tasks, right? There are some things Python would not be great at. But Python's perfectly capable of doing most computer related tasks. And in some cases, again, it offers real world benefits over some of the faster alternative languages. And I think one of the reasons why it's become cool to hate on Python these days is Python obviously is one of the most popular programming languages today, if not the most popular. It's everywhere, right? And on our Linux systems, since most of my viewers are obviously Linux users, because this being a Linux channel, Python's already installed on all your Linux systems. In fact, some of the most important pieces of software on your Linux system probably are written entirely or partially in Python. A few examples off the top of my head, since I, you know, run Arch Linux based distributions, Pacman, the Arch Linux package manager, Pacman is written in Python partially. It's actually written in a combination of C, Python and Bash scripting. The library SDK, so the library protocol, the protocol behind Odyssey, which is an alternative video platform to YouTube, that library SDK is actually written in Python, Spotify, Dropbox, Calibre, DeLuge, OpenShot, a number of really popular programs that are available on Linux and in some cases also Windows and Mac, all are written entirely or partially in Python. Some of the video games that you guys play, for some tests, they use Python. They leverage Python for certain things such as add-ons for the games or sometimes they use Python for internal scripting. Obviously, some of the programs that I talk about often on this channel, things like Vert Manager, the hypervisor that I talked about the other day that is written in Python. That's a front-end, actually, to KVM. So KVM is not written in Python. That's part of the Linux kernel that's all written in C. Vert Manager is just a GUI front-end, and it's written in Python, which is perfectly acceptable. When I talk about good use cases of Python, a graphical front-end to something is a perfect use case for Python. And when people are saying, I won't use Vert Manager because it's written in Python, do you even know what you're talking about at that point? Like, what would be the benefit of rewriting that graphical front-end in something like C? What gains are you getting from that? Because the Vert Manager is not actually running your virtual machines. The KVM, the Linux kernel modules, are actually taking care of doing the heavy lifting. That's all QEMU and KVM, you know, on the lower level. Vert Manager is just that face on top, you know, how you interact with that stuff. One of the biggest criticisms I get is one of my favorite tiling window managers is Qtile. I love it. It is fantastic. Qtile is written and configured entirely in Python. And when people hear this, they immediately think, well, this window manager is going to be slow and heavy and it's going to be horrible and it's not. It's fantastic. There is absolutely, I don't notice ever a speed difference when I log into Qtile, which is written in Python versus DWM, which is written in C, a really fast language. Or when I log into Xmonad, which is written in Haskell, which is a really fast language, I notice absolutely no difference between Qtile, DWM and Xmonad. And the reason is because people misconstrue what a window manager actually is. They think the window manager is like the whole dang computer, like it controls everything. No, a window manager, all it does is determines where your windows appear on the screen, that placement, that XY coordinate where a window gets thrown. You know, when you open something, the window goes here. When you open this new window, it goes here. And when you rearrange them, they swap places. That's all a window manager does. It does some very simple mathematical computations, and then just puts the window in the correct place. And Python is perfect for that, right? Like, you could literally use any language, it doesn't have to be fast at all, to actually handle what a window manager actually is. For those of you that are running Linux, most of your distro specific applications. So when you log into whatever XYZ Linux distribution, and you get your welcome screen, chances are that's probably written in Python, your settings manager for your distros probably written in Python, you know, these distro specific apps. And the reason a lot of distro maintainers when they write their own custom apps, they use Python is because it's an easy language to get into. And again, Python is perfect for tasks such as a welcome screen. Another thing I remember years ago, the old Ubuntu software center, Ubuntu now uses the GNOME software center. But four or five years ago, they actually had their own Ubuntu software center, it was written in Python, at least partially it was written in Python. And the server back in the web framework, they may have been leveraging some Python on the back end of that thing as well. I'm not actually sure on that. But it wouldn't surprise me because much of the web actually uses Python. And this is another thing these anti Python people, the Python is slow, like we have billion dollar and trillion dollar companies that use Python for some of their most important stuff. For example, YouTube, we're on YouTube right now. Do you know that every time you watch a video on YouTube, you're actually executing some Python code. YouTube is owned by Google. Google as a company really likes Python. Python has always been a recognized language at Google. Since the very beginning, even Python conferences, Google sometimes is a sponsor of these large Python conferences. Instagram uses Python, not necessarily the Instagram app, but I know the application servers, the back end, a lot of that stuff those servers are built with Python and they use the Django framework and Reddit uses Python read it when it was originally created. They actually created it and wrote it in common list. But about 15 years ago or so, they actually rewrote Reddit to actually leverage Python. They wanted to switch away from this to Python because it gave them more flexibility because just Python is a much more mature language. It's not as old as list, but it has many, many more libraries and modules and web frameworks and things like that to work with unlike common list. So I've listed a number of pieces of software and a lot of web services that we use on a daily basis. You and I use on a daily basis and these services and pieces of software. Sometimes these are made by billion dollar or trillion dollar companies. And are you telling me that all these billion dollar companies that are so heavily invested in Python using Python with their applications and Python on their web servers? Are you telling me that these huge companies and these really smart people that work for these huge companies, they don't know that Python is slow? What is it? You have some secret knowledge that Python is really a slow language, but they don't. Well, what I think it is, I think that actual developers and actual programmers, they actually know something that the normies don't. And for one thing, although Python is slow at the number crunching, we've talked about that many Python libraries that actually require speed, they actually do leverage C under the hood. So Python knows it's slow at crunching numbers. That's why a lot of these libraries and frameworks, if they actually need speed, well, they just leverage C. So I think the slowness of Python is way exaggerated by the haters. Again, for most tasks, Python, it's more than fast enough to do the job. And then we haven't even talked about the benefits of Python from a pragmatic viewpoint, the speed of which devs can code something in Python versus the fast languages like C, for example. Well, you can code things much quicker in Python. It's just an easier language to work in, not to mention more people know the language. That's why these billion dollar, trillion dollar companies, they hire so many Python developers as because there's so many Python developers available, they can actually get things done much more quickly than if they had to employ strictly C developers to do all of this stuff. And because of having all those libraries available and having so many people around the world that actually know a little Python, if your company leverages Python, then there is a very good chance that the same language Python can be used by your business users and your data analysts and your data engineers and your data scientists, your back end devs and your web devs and your DevOps, your system administrators even. So let's just stop all the hate and the prejudice, especially from people that are just normal computer users. That's what I don't get these comments. Again, these are not from people that actually involved in development at all. These are just normal computer users that for some reason they've heard this rumor spread around. And like many things, you know, you hear something enough times you start believing it and then you start becoming part of the problem. You're spreading all of this misinformation somewhere along the way. These people had their minds poisoned by somebody with all of this misinformation. And, you know, you just got to you got to realize, hey, you made a mistake. You bought into some BS somewhere along the way because there's a reason Python is everywhere. Python is all around you is because it actually is a fantastic language. It's very easy to learn and actually does a lot of things really, really well, including software on your Linux system. Like the people I won't run that program because it's written in Python. Get over it because again, Python is everywhere. It's not going anywhere, you know, and all these pieces of software written in Python, all these web services you interact with every day written in Python. If you can't use Python, then you really can't use a computer at this point. So it's too prevalent, right? It's too prevalent. It's everywhere. You're never going to get away from it. Now, before I go, I need to thank a few special people. I need to thank the producers of this episode. And of course, I'm talking about Devon Gabe James, Matt, Michael Mitchell, Paul Scott, Wes, Akami Allen, Lennox Ninja, Chuck, Commander, Angry Kurt, Diokai, David, Dylan Gregory, Heiko, Koska, Lee, Max and Mike, Nitrix, Erja, and Alexander, Peace, Origin for Door, Polytech, Raver, Red Prophet, Steven and Willie. These guys are my highest tiered patrons over on Patreon without these guys. This episode you just watched would not have been possible. The show is also brought to you by each and every one of these ladies and gentlemen as well. All these names you're seeing on the screen right now, these are all my supporters over on Patreon because I don't have any corporate sponsors. I'm just sponsored by you guys, the community. If you like my videos and you want more of this kind of content, please subscribe to DistroTube over on Patreon. Alright guys, peace. And try out Qtel, it's actually pretty good.