I have python 3.x running on my PC, windows 10.
I had removed python 2.7.x prior to installing platformio.
I was in need of falling back to python 2.7.x, to use libraries so far too fiddly to convert to python 3, and started looking at what I would need do. To double check my machine I ran py -2 to see if any software I have installed has snuck python onto my machine.
I found py -2 from my cmd shell on Windows 10 runs the python 2.7 (odd) installed under platformio.
If I install python 2.7.x on my machine, from python.org, what aspects of platformio will I break?
Cheers,
B
I’ve had 3.6 and 2.7 installed side by side on W10, and then removed the 3.6 install… and had some issues… but a uninstall and re-install of the PIO extension (and hence re-triggering the install/configuration of the private python install) seemed to cure that.
So I would say you’ll have either have no trouble at all, or a minor inconvenience 
PlatformIO Core 4.0 will support Python 2 and Python 3. So, we will use the best matching Python which you have on your machine. The final release is planned this month.
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I found this searching for a similar problem. Ubuntu 20.10. Python3 v 3.8.6 and Python 2.7.18.
Platformio 2.2.1 on vscode:
Error: Python 3.6 or later is required for this operation.
Please check a migration guide:
https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/core/migration.html#drop-support-for-python-2-and-3-5
why???