Installing Orange on Linux with uv #7319

UPDATE:

To install Orange with a single command, run:

uv tool install -p 3.12 -w PyQt6,PyQt6-WebEngine orange3

Replace PyQt6,PyQt6-WebEngine with PyQt5,PyQtWebEngine to use PyQt5.

I didn't want to install conda just for this one program and I already had uv installed so I decided to try and use it instead. These are the steps that helped me get it installed:

1. Install orange3 as a tool:

uv tool install -p 3.12 orange3

This should add the orange-canvas executable to your $PATH and an environment for the program. Next, you have to add a PyQt version.

2. cd to orange3's environment root and activate virtual environment:

cd $(uv tool dir)/orange3
source ./bin/activate

3. Install PyQt6 in the environment:

uv pip install PyQt6 PyQt6-WebEngine

To use PyQt5, install PyQt5 and PyQtWebEngine instead.

After all that, orange-canvas launches and works perfectly fine, but of course you cannot install plugins from the GUI (this requires conda). I assume they can be installed with uv too, but I haven't tried yet.