Is it ok having both Anacondas 2.7 and 3.5 installed in the same time?

Question

I am using currently Anaconda with Python 2.7, but I will need to use Python 3.5. Is it ok to have them installed both in the same time? Should I expect some problems?
I am on a 64-bit Win8.

Answer 1

I use both depending on who in my department I am helping (Some people prefer 2.7, others 3.5). Anyway, I use Anaconda and my default installation is 3.5. I use environments for other versions of python, packages, etc.. So for example, when I wanted to start using python 2.7 I ran:

 conda create -n Python27 python=2.7 

This creates a new environment named Python27 and installs Python version 2.7. You can add arguments to that line for installing other packages by default or just start from scratch. The environment will automatically activate, to deactivate simply type deactivate (windows) or source deactivate (linux, osx) in the command line. To activate in the future type activate Python27 (windows) or source activate Python27 (linux, osx). I would recommend reading the documentation for Managing Environments in Anaconda, if you choose to take that route.

Update

As of conda version 4.6 you can now use conda activate and conda deactivate. The use of source is now deprecated and will eventually be removed.

Answer 2

My understanding is you don't need to install Anaconda again to start using a different version of python. Instead, conda has the ability to separately manage python 2 and 3 environments.