see what happens alternativelytry searching for "pythonin the usual places --/usr/bin/usr/local/binetc as on macspython is standard part of linux systems if you find pythonmake sure it' recent version although any recent python will do for most of this textthis edition focuses on python and specificallyso you may want to install one of these to run some of the examples in this book speaking of versionsper the prefacei recommend starting out with python or later if you're learning python anew and don' need to deal with existing codeotherwiseyou should generally use python some popular python-based systems still use older releasesthough ( and even are still widespread)so if you're working with existing systems be sure to use version relevant to your needsthe next section describes locations where you can fetch variety of python versions where to get python if there is no python on your machineyou will need to install one yourself the good news is that python is an open source system that is freely available on the web and very easy to install on most platforms you can always fetch the latest and greatest standard python release from python orgpython' official website look for the downloads link on that pageand choose release for the platform on which you will be working you'll find prebuilt self-installer files for windows (run to install)installer disk images for mac os (installed per mac conventions)the full source code distribution (typically compiled on linuxunixor os machines to generate an interpreter)and more although python is standard on linux these daysyou can also find rpms for linux on the web (unpack them with rpmpython' website also has links to pages where versions for other platforms are maintainedeither at python org orgitself or offsite for exampleyou can find third-party python installers for google' androidas well as apps to install python on apple' ios google web search is another great way to find python installation packages among other platformsyou can find python prebuilt for ipodspalm handheldsnokia cell phonesplaystation and pspsolarisas/ and windows mobilethough some of these are typically few releases behind the curve if you find yourself pining for unix environment on windows machineyou might also be interested in installing cygwin and its version of python (see comcygwin is gpl-licensed library and toolset that provides full unix functionality on windows machinesand it includes prebuilt python that makes use of all the unix tools provided appendix ainstallation and configuration