One of the most-frequently asked questions of all time is this: "I have a Python application I've developed; how do I deliver it to my customer/friend/...?"

Here are typical answers:

• tar up the source and send it. It's reasonable to expect that the end-user's host will have Python installed. MacOS comes that way; most Linux distributions do; and it's not onerous to insist that a Windows user install, for example, ActivePython;

• for Windows, use MovablePython;

• for this purpose, ["Pyrex"] can be regarded as a language variant to Python itself;
• ["Freeze"]
• ["cx_Freeze"]
• [wiki:MacPython/py2app py2app] is for Macintosh
• ["py2exe"]

• PyInstaller (supports Windows, Linux and soon Mac)

• ...

FredrikLundh [http://effbot.org/zone/python-compile.htm discussed] some of these in 2003.

As of 2007, py2exe perhaps is second in use only to source distribution.