Potential move to `uv` over `pip`

[willhallonline]

There has been some discussion about using uv rather than pip in the Python community. Whilst I offer no real opinion one way or another, and I do not use virtualenv because I want to make things available to root user, it may be worth considering especially for additional features (ai-generated below):

The main reasons you might use uv instead of pip in Python are:

• Speed: uv is designed to be much faster than pip for installing and managing packages. It uses Rust under the hood, which allows for quicker dependency resolution and installation.
• Modern Dependency Resolution: uv aims to provide more reliable and deterministic dependency resolution, reducing issues with conflicting or ambiguous package requirements.
• Unified Tooling: uv combines several features from tools like pip, pip-tools, and virtualenv into a single command-line interface, simplifying workflows for creating virtual environments, installing packages, and managing dependencies.
• Better Caching: uv has improved caching mechanisms, which can further speed up repeated installations and reduce network usage.
• Security: uv includes features for verifying package integrity and can be more robust against certain supply chain attacks.

However, pip is still the default and most widely supported Python package manager, and some workflows or environments may require it. uv is a newer tool and may not yet support every feature or edge case that pip does.