Well, here is a knotty problem. Python3.9 is installed in /usr/bin/. It is no longer the current version - it is now 3.11.
If I run python3 --version is says Python 3.11.4
If I run python is says Python 3.9.6.
To my mind, for consistency sake, both commands should give the same result. Windows and Linux can easily be configured to symlink python3 to python but that doesn't work on Mac because even if you create a symlink to the up-to-date python 3 in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.11/bin (which is the first entry in my path), that symlink is ignored. If you enter python you still get 3.9 from /usr/bin.
And since there is no way to delete that it remains a permanent irritant.
Perhaps it was a mistake to hard-code a version of python into the OS, because it is updated so frequently.
Some will say, MacOS "depends" on python so it must be this way. Apple support will say "Why are you trying to work with python on your computer? We don't support that"
You would think that after all the years that Apple has been working on the OS and the billions they have in the bank, they could figure out some way to keep python current so that it wouldn't be necessary to get updates directly from python.org.
anyway, IMHO, restrictions like this always have undesirable consequences, as would not having the restrictions. I'd rather be able to clone my drives frequently and be free to do whatever I think necessary. Of course, with APFS it's no longer really possible to clone your disk either.
I'm never comfortable or happy when I run into this kind of paternalism. Every time I encounter it I seriously consider just dumping mac completely, it's that frustrating.
Unfortunately ,the only solution if for Apple to change it's ways.
