If I have a Python package that depends on some C libraries (like say the Gnu Scientific Library (GSL) for numerical computations), is it a good idea to bundle the library with my code? I'd like to make my package as easy to install as possible for users and I don't want them to have to download C libraries by hand and supply include-paths. Also I could always ensure that the version of the library that I ship is compatible with my code. However, is it possible that there are clashes if the user has the library installed already, or ar there any other reasons why I shouldn't do this? I know that I can make it easier for users by just providing a binary distribution, but I'd like to avoid having to maintain binary distributions for all possible OSs. So, I'd like to stick to a source distribution, but for the user (who proudly owns a C compiler) installation should be as easy as python setup.py install.