Anaconda vs. miniconda

Brief

conda is both a command line tool, and a python package.

Miniconda installer = Python + conda

Anaconda installer = Python + conda + meta package anaconda

meta Python pkg anaconda = about 160 Python pkgs for daily use in data science

Anaconda installer = Miniconda installer + conda install anaconda

Detail

1. conda is a python manager and an environment manager, which makes it possible to

   • install package with conda install flake8
   • create an environment with any version of Python with conda create -n myenv python=3.6

2. Miniconda installer = Python + conda

   conda, the package manager and environment manager, is a Python package. So Python is bundled in Miniconda installer. Cause conda distribute Python interpreter with its own libraries/dependencies but not the existing ones on your operating system, other minimal dependencies like openssl, ncurses, sqlite, etc are installed as well.

   Basically, Miniconda is just conda and its minimal dependencies. And the environment where conda is installed is the "base" environment, which is previously called "root" environment.

3. Anaconda installer = Python + conda + meta package anaconda

4. meta Python package anaconda = about 160 Python pkgs for daily use in data science

   Meta packages, are packages that do NOT contain actual softwares and simply depend on other packages to be installed.

   Download an anaconda meta package from Anaconda Cloud and extract the content from it. The actual 160+ packages to be installed are listed in info/recipe/meta.yaml.

   package:
       name: anaconda
       version: '2019.07'
   build:
       ignore_run_exports:
           - '*'
       number: '0'
       pin_depends: strict
       string: py36_0
   requirements:
       build:
           - python 3.6.8 haf84260_0
       is_meta_pkg:
           - true
       run:
           - alabaster 0.7.12 py36_0
           - anaconda-client 1.7.2 py36_0
           - anaconda-project 0.8.3 py_0
           # ...
           - beautifulsoup4 4.7.1 py36_1
           # ...
           - curl 7.65.2 ha441bb4_0
           # ...
           - hdf5 1.10.4 hfa1e0ec_0
           # ...
           - ipykernel 5.1.1 py36h39e3cac_0
           - ipython 7.6.1 py36h39e3cac_0
           - ipython_genutils 0.2.0 py36h241746c_0
           - ipywidgets 7.5.0 py_0
           # ...
           - jupyter 1.0.0 py36_7
           - jupyter_client 5.3.1 py_0
           - jupyter_console 6.0.0 py36_0
           - jupyter_core 4.5.0 py_0
           - jupyterlab 1.0.2 py36hf63ae98_0
           - jupyterlab_server 1.0.0 py_0
           # ...
           - matplotlib 3.1.0 py36h54f8f79_0
           # ...
           - mkl 2019.4 233
           - mkl-service 2.0.2 py36h1de35cc_0
           - mkl_fft 1.0.12 py36h5e564d8_0
           - mkl_random 1.0.2 py36h27c97d8_0
           # ...
           - nltk 3.4.4 py36_0
           # ...
           - numpy 1.16.4 py36hacdab7b_0
           - numpy-base 1.16.4 py36h6575580_0
           - numpydoc 0.9.1 py_0
           # ...
           - pandas 0.24.2 py36h0a44026_0
           - pandoc 2.2.3.2 0
           # ...
           - pillow 6.1.0 py36hb68e598_0
           # ...
           - pyqt 5.9.2 py36h655552a_2
           # ...
           - qt 5.9.7 h468cd18_1
           - qtawesome 0.5.7 py36_1
           - qtconsole 4.5.1 py_0
           - qtpy 1.8.0 py_0
           # ...
           - requests 2.22.0 py36_0
           # ...
           - sphinx 2.1.2 py_0
           - sphinxcontrib 1.0 py36_1
           - sphinxcontrib-applehelp 1.0.1 py_0
           - sphinxcontrib-devhelp 1.0.1 py_0
           - sphinxcontrib-htmlhelp 1.0.2 py_0
           - sphinxcontrib-jsmath 1.0.1 py_0
           - sphinxcontrib-qthelp 1.0.2 py_0
           - sphinxcontrib-serializinghtml 1.1.3 py_0
           - sphinxcontrib-websupport 1.1.2 py_0
           - spyder 3.3.6 py36_0
           - spyder-kernels 0.5.1 py36_0
           # ...
   

   The pre-installed packages from meta pkg anaconda are mainly for web scraping and data science. Like requests, beautifulsoup, numpy, nltk, etc.

   If you have a Miniconda installed, conda install anaconda will make it same as an Anaconda installation, except that the installation folder names are different.

5. Miniconda2 v.s. Miniconda. Anaconda2 v.s. Anaconda.

   2 means the bundled Python interpreter for conda in the "base" environment is Python 2, but not Python 3.

Anaconda is a very large installation ~ 2 GB and is most useful for those users who are not familiar with installing modules or packages with other package managers.

Anaconda seems to be promoting itself as the official package manager of Jupyter. It's not. Anaconda bundles Jupyter, R, python, and many packages with its installation.

Anaconda is not necessary for installing Jupyter Lab or the R kernel. There is plenty of information available elsewhere for installing Jupyter Lab or Notebooks. There is also plenty of information elsewhere for installing R studio. The following shows how to install the R kernel directly from R Studio:

To install the R kernel, without Anaconda, start R Studio. In the R terminal window enter these three commands:

install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("IRkernel/IRkernel")
IRkernel::installspec()

Done. Next time Jupyter is opened, the R kernel will be available.

Both Anaconda and miniconda use the conda package manager. The chief differece between between Anaconda and miniconda,however,is that

The Anaconda distribution comes pre-loaded with all the packages while the miniconda distribution is just the management system without any pre-loaded packages. If one uses miniconda, one has to download individual packages and libraries separately.

I personally use Anaconda distribution as I dont really have to worry much about individual package installations.

A disadvantage of miniconda is that installing each individual package can take a long amount of time. Compared to that installing and using Anaconda takes a lot less time.

However, there are some packages in anaconda (QtConsole, Glueviz,Orange3) that I have never had to use. I dont even know their purpose. So a disadvantage of anaconda is that it occupies more space than needed.