problems with installing tensorflow using anaconda I am trying to use anaconda 4.5.12 to install tensorflow on an Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS system with python 3.7.1 and pycharm 2018.3.3.

I issue the following terminal command: 

conda install tensorflow


And this gives me:

Solving environment: /\-


(It keeps switching between /-). This just continues indefinitely. I waited for like 20 minutes at one point. Why is this happening?

Also, I am confused by the explanation on this anaconda site, which gives the following terminal command:

conda create -n tensorflow_env tensorflow
conda activate tensorflow_env


What does this command do, and why would we use this rather than "conda install tensorflow"? I assume it creates a new environment but why do we need a new environment to install tensorflow? Can't we just install tensorflow for all environments? This seems messy, because I think it also means that I can not create an environment in PyCharm directly.
I can't comment because I'm new, so I put this as an answer but really should be a comment. I have come across this link that might help you:

https://towardsdatascience.com/tensorflow-gpu-installation-made-easy-use-conda-instead-of-pip-52e5249374bc

They say to use this command to install tensorflow with conda even on Ubuntu:

conda create --name tf_gpu tensorflow-gpu


Hope it helps!