Changing python version without breaking software center

Solution 1:

You shouldn't change the symlink for python to point to Python 3 as you have already seen its consequences. And I would recommend you to get into the habit of calling Python 3 programs with python3 as that would involve the least amount of trouble later on.

But if you insist on calling Python 3 on your Terminal using python, you may create an alias for it. Remember, alias is different than symlink. Edit ~/.bash_aliases file (create it if it doesn't exist) to add the following in it:

alias python='python3.2'

Then restart your terminal and you would be able to execute Python 3 by calling python. This wouldn't break anything as changing the symlink does.

You may even add aliases like alias py3='python3.2' and then call py3 to run Python 3. This is even shorter and less confusing.

Solution 2:

Don't do that:

• The Python programs that come with Ubuntu depend on /usr/bin/python being the default Python2 version of your distro. They will likely break if it is something else.
• PEP-0394 recommends that the python command calls Python2. Most Python programs will break if it calls Python3 instead.

Instead use /usr/bin/python3 if you want to use Python3