They are hijacking the entire python's ecosystem in a very smart way, that's all. At some point we, probably, will find us vendor locked-in, just because the initial offer was so appealing. Take a closer look at it: package manager, formatter/linter, types, lsp. What's left before it will poke cpython one way or another? Maybe cloud-based IDE, some interesting WASM relationship (but RustPython is not there yet, they just don't have enough money). Otherwise, Astral is on a pretty straightforward way to `touchdown` in a few years. It's both, the blessing, and the curse.
Let's be honest, all tries to bring a cpython alternative failed (niche boosters like PyPy is a separate story, but it's not up-to-date, and not entirely exact). For some reason, people think that 1:1 compatibility is not critical and too costly to pursue (hello, all LLVM-based compilers). I think, it's doable and there's a solid way to solve it. What if Astral thinks so too?
Honestly... I don't really care. If in 5 years they turn around and try to charge for uv we'll still be in a much better place than if we'd all stuck with the catastrofuck that is pip.
Let's be honest, all tries to bring a cpython alternative failed (niche boosters like PyPy is a separate story, but it's not up-to-date, and not entirely exact). For some reason, people think that 1:1 compatibility is not critical and too costly to pursue (hello, all LLVM-based compilers). I think, it's doable and there's a solid way to solve it. What if Astral thinks so too?