Hi @Kaegan –
Reading your original post, there might be a few assumptions in what you write that are worth discussing.
First, it is worth pointing out that “conda” is not the same as “anaconda”. The conda package manager is MIT-licensed and may be very effectively used independently of the anaconda Python distribution (which has its own license terms). If you have not heard about it before, many, many people use conda independently of anaconda. That does not diminish at all how awesome and super-valuable the anaconda distribution itself is but I am hoping to highlight there is more to conda as a tool. KNIME’s Conda Environment Propagation node is an integration with the conda tool. Equating “conda” with “anaconda” is a common misconception but I hope sharing this empowers you to do yet more with conda environments because conda really does solve problems that other virtual env tools do not.
Second, if you genuinely benefit from using the anaconda Python distribution at your company of >200 people, it might be worth having a conversation with the folks at Anaconda (the company that employs human beings to produce and maintain cross-compatible binary packages in the anaconda distribution) to investigate your options under their license. If you believe using the anaconda distribution at your company is genuinely valuable (saves you time, reduces complexity, makes you smile, whatever) then it sounds worth at least a conversation about that value.
I hope this is encouraging both that conda is more awesome than might have been obvious at first and that your effort has not been rendered useless after all. Also, this should not be construed as a pitch to go buy anything from any company… though I do kinda wish I had a nickel for every time I encouraged someone to go use the best tool for their particular job/task.
Hope this helps,
Davin