Dec 15, 2025 Dec 15, 2025

Miniforge3 – The minimalistic installer for Conda & Mamba

Alternative to Python3-Venv and -Portable: Miniforge3 [25.11.0-1]

Note: Mambaforge and all forge-versions with pypy3-Interpreter are deprecated, which is why it is recommended – unless otherwise needed – to only download the "Miniforge3-xx.x.x-x" shell script. Following quote "After the release of Miniforge 23.3.1 in August 2023, Miniforge and Mambaforge are essentially identical" means that the recommended Miniforge3 shell-scripts also include Mamba.

Create Environments at any path, prompt and display it by its generic name

Jump to the folder with the downloaded installer, open the Terminal (F4) and run the installation by
Terminal
```
./MINIFORGE-FILE.sh
```
After installation jump to the bin-folder of the installation (default: $HOME/miniforge3/bin/) and initialize the conda-shell for easier access from Terminal:
Terminal ($HOME/miniforge3/bin/)
```
./conda init
```
Now restart the Terminal for the initialization to take effect.

These are the expected directory-structure & command-usage for the following scenario:

Scenario-example

Collection of virtual environments (folder):    $HOME/conda-envs

New virtual environment (folder):               $HOME/conda-envs/NAME_OF_ENVIRONMENT

Terminal-Command to activate the environment:   conda activate NAME_OF_ENVIRONMENT

Create an folder for the collection of future environments (e.g.: $HOME/conda-envs/). Now create a python-environment (e.g.: env_1) inside by
Terminal
```
conda create -p $HOME/conda-envs/env_1 python
```
Its going to install the newest version of python.
Append the parent folder (directory containing environments) into the conda-config for prompting any environment by its generic name:
Terminal
```
conda config --append envs_dirs $HOME/conda-envs
```
Take a last change inside the conda-config to show only the generic name instead of the full path after activating any environment:
Terminal
```
conda config --set env_prompt '({name})'
```
The file at Path "$HOME/.condarc" should finally look like this:
$HOME/.condarc
```
channels:
  - conda-forge
auto_activate_base: false
envs_dirs:
  - $HOME/conda-envs
env_prompt: ({name})
```

Usage & Results

Open the Linux-Terminal (Win + T) and activate your custom set Conda-Environment:

To install additional Python-Packages use conda install instead of the pip command