Anaconda Inc is terrible. I recommend mamba + conda forge but I don't package stuff.
Glad you're filing a complaint, and I hope others do as well. My experience with them as vendors of enterprise data science server software was quite disappointing.
this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2025
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Miniforge should be defaulting to use conda-forge. Perhaps an old installation is configured to use the Anaconda inc maintained defaults channel.
Conda-forge.org provides a guide to rid your
environments of the defaults channel.
https://conda-forge.org/docs/user/transitioning_from_defaults/
Thanks for this! I wasn’t aware a good independent fork of all of this had been set up (I’d kinda forgotten about conda-forge).
It's all about your organization's size and if the organization makes use of the Anaconda controlled defaults channel. I'm not a lawyer, but your company may be liable for some licensing fee if your company is using Anaconda's repository of binaries. You'd need to consult with an actual lawyer for more reliable assessment of your potential liability.
Switch to using miniforge and the conda-forge channel when installing and using Conda.
Sure. I can agree that my company would be liable. But the company isn't mine. I just work here. And my team doesn't use any conda stuff at all.
Essentially, I am being personally threatened of a lawsuit even though I have no ability to make a licensing or purchase decision.
That just doesn't sit right with me.
I didn't read your post correctly. Yeah, that's harassment at the very least. No better than someone screaming at a retail worker because of some corporate policies.
Send the emails to your company's legal team. It's not your fight.
Send the emails to your company’s legal team. It’s not your fight.
Already did, and agreed. I also asked the legal team if they could ask Anaconda.com to stop contacting me and threatening me personally. We shall see what happens.
While I’m sure it was inevitable, especially in today’s climate, it saddens me to see Anaconda (and conda by extension I presume) go down like this. When they first came out it was such a breath of fresh air in the Python ecosystem.
I’m not sure in the details, but what’s the point in relying at all on any of their infrastructure? Is any of it independent enough?
The real kicker is that I'm fairly sure we aren't really using them at any real scale - if we do it's to demo our product within the context of AI development. So if anything, they get a lot of free press when we do that. If they're gonna throw a fit over it, I'm sure we can work with some other "AI" company (that's what they bill themselves as) that wants the free marketing. Heck, I can't imagine the anaconda ecosystem working out if they keep threatening the developers that enrich that ecosystem.
Oh I get you, and it’s an insight into the priorities and operation of the company. They’re clearly worried about snaring all of the “free loaders” as they move to a more extractive business model. And so there’s probably a bunch of people with licence quotas hounding anyone they can.
Conda itself is outside of Anaconda, Inc's control.
What about the package repos and conda forge? Apologies, it’s been a while since I paid attention to them (and Python packaging too). Does conda work well just against PyPI?
Keep in mind that you actually do have control over what you and your reports use for software and their license compliance. Otherwise not your problem. Beyond that, it is an issue for legal anyway and management.
200 employees is medium sized, not smallish. And how is it still a startup?
I'm not here to discuss the nuances of a startup versus medium sized company. Suffice it to say that much of the organization still views itself as a startup. Even though yes, you are right, it's a medium sized organization.
Yes, I am aware.
I'm more asking if others are getting a wide spread of threatening messages across the org - even if they don't regularly use conda/anaconda.
It's like everyone glossed over "I don't use it in my job at all, and neither do my teammates" bit.
didnt put it for you specifically, I didnt know about this and found this while searching. thought others might find it useful. otherwise I agree it is stupid they dont go to something like a legal or hr department but harass teams directly (even if they were using it imo). they might be thinking along the lines "lets pester their teams, they will take it up with whatever the relevant department is"