Conda Basic Introduction: How to Install and Configure Conda?

# 1. What is Conda?

Conda is an open-source package, environment management system, and software distribution tool widely used in the fields of data science, machine learning, and scientific computing. It primarily serves to manage software packages and dependencies, making project and environment management simpler and more efficient.

## 1.1 Conda Overview

Conda was originally provided by the Anaconda distribution but later became an independent package management system. It can be used for installing, deploying, and managing software packages, environments, and dependencies, aiming to eliminate issues such as version conflicts in software installation.

## 1.2 Differences Between Conda and Other Package Management Tools

- Conda is a combination of package manager and environment manager, unlike pip and virtualenv. It can handle various types of software packages, including Python packages, R packages, C, and C++ packages, among others.
- Conda allows users to create isolated environments and install different versions of software packages in each environment, effectively avoiding conflicts between environments.
- Conda also enables the porting of environments between different operating systems, making the deployment of development environments across various machines more convenient and flexible.

With this understanding of Conda's basic concepts, we will now move on to the installation and configuration of Conda.

# 2. Installing Conda

Installing Conda is the first step in using Conda for package management. Below is a detailed guide on how to install Conda.

### 2.1 Downloading and Installing Miniconda

Before installing Conda, you can choose to install Miniconda or Anaconda. Here, we'll first introduce the Miniconda installation method.

The steps to install Miniconda are as follows:
1. Visit the Miniconda official website (***
***
*** "Add Miniconda to my PATH environment variable" option so that you can use the `conda` command in the command line.

Once the installation is complete, you can verify the Conda installation by running the following command in the command line:

conda --version

### 2.2 Using Anaconda to Install Conda

In addition to Miniconda, we can also use Anaconda to install Conda. Anaconda is a package management tool for data science and machine learning.

The steps to install Anaconda are as follows:
1. Visit the Anaconda official website (***
***
***

conda --version

### 2.3 Verifying Conda Installation

After installing Conda, to confirm that the installation was successful, you can use the following command to check the Conda version information:

conda --version

With this, the installation of Conda is complete. Next, we will proceed to the configuration of the Conda environment in Chapter 3.

# 3. Configuring Conda Environment

In this chapter, we will introduce how to configure a Conda environment, including setting up Conda's mirror sources, creating and managing Conda environments, and managing Conda's packages and dependencies.

1. **Setting Up Conda's Mirror Sources**:
You can set up Conda's mirror sources through the following steps:
| Mirror Source Type | Mirror Source URL