Multi-platform Development with Python and Web2py. Here are a list of suggestions that should help make your experience a more pleasant one.
Stick with Ubuntu LTS First to reiterate pbreit comment on Ubuntu LTS version. If you are not developing Ubuntu itself or have no compelling reason to run the latest and greatest version of Ubuntu then stick with an LTS version. You will have far fewer problems with your host system and when you upgrade to the next LTS version things will go much more smoothly and most of your OS configuration and settings will continue to work as well. Never Downgrade Never ever downgrade Python (or anything else for that matter!). While a lot of things are designed to be upgradable ( like Web2py ) and maintain backward compatibility ( Web2py) nothing that I am aware of is designed to downgrade. OK, so now what do you do! To do cross platform development with Python and therefore Web2py you have three basic options from least to most desirable: A) Trust ( verify and hope ) that your applications only uses features of the target Python version. Traditional approach This can works surprisingly well, in fact it is what people used to do all the time. The trick would be doing regular deployments and testing on your target platform both of which are "good" practices. B) Use virtualenv to create a virtual python environment for running your application. Recommended but adds another learning curve virtualenv lets you create isolated Python environments. virtualenv works great but can significantly increase your short term learning curve as you will also need to learn about some other concepts and Python features such as pip. http://www.virtualenv.org/en/latest/index.html C) Universal Python Installer. Not recommended This would be the perfect solution only it does not yet exist. The closest I have gotten is this project here: http://code.google.com/p/uc-unified-python-installer/ but to my knowledge it does not work on GAE. It does give you a consistent automated installation of a "sandboxed" python versions on nix and nix like systems but must be manually modified to install anything but Python 2.6.7
