The scientists he's talking about are smart people, but aren't really into computers and (what's more) have no patience at all for the amount of pain it takes to compile the dependencies Python packages need.<p>It's not the Python side of things that's the problem. Numpy and Scipy (which nearly all Python scientific software depend on) is based on both bindings to C and to Fortran, and getting those library ducks in a row - especially on Windows or MacOS X, on Linux your package manager does it for you - is a pain for someone who knows what they're doing and almost impossible for someone who doesn't.<p>Plus, well, most scientists outside physics use Windows. If you need a command-line tool you've already lost in that respect. What you're competing against is often Excel.<p>The battle over Numpy being in core Python has been fought and lost, but short of that level of integration, I don't see that there's going to be much effective to do about this.