What's this all about?

What is Python?

Python is a programming language that can be used for all sorts of tasks that include making web apps, mobile apps, video games, data analysis, and much, much more. Python was built with developer productivity in mind, so that it's easy to learn for beginners while remaining powerful and robust enough for advanced users. This has helped Python become a popular choice for hobbyists and startups alike, because it's easy to build things quickly.

Python is a language that is easy for beginners, has a vast ecosystem of third-party tools, is supported by one of the most friendly and welcoming communities in technology, and has a bright future in the software world.

Source: http://www.bestprogramminglanguagefor.me/why-learn-python

What is Python useful for?

Web Programming

Whether you're building a simple blog or a full-blown web application, Python is a great choice for your back-end. There are a number of frameworks available that will help make building your app easy a fast.

Django is the most popular Python web framework. Django makes it easy to build better web apps, more quickly, with less code. There's also a thriving ecosystem of third-party Open Source Django apps. We recommend the DjangoGirls tutorial for learning Django.
Flask is a microframework that doesn't require lots of tools or libraries, and tries to get out of your way.
Pyramid fits somewhere between Django and Flask. It allows you to start small and finish big, growing with you to fit your applications needs.

Video Games

Arcade is an easy-to-learn Python library for creating 2D video games. It is ideal for beginning programmers, or programmers who want to create 2D games without learning a complex framework.
Panda3D is a fully-featured framework for 3D rendering and game development. Originally built by Walt Disney Interactive and Carnegie Mellon University.
PyGame is a highly-portable library for making multimedia applications, like games, on top of the excellent SDL2 library.

Mobile (Android/iOS) Apps

BeeWare is a project that aims to allow developers to build apps for iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux, Web, and tvOS using rich, native user interfaces.
Kivy is a framework for rapidly developing multi-touch applications, like you would see on a mobile device or tablet.

Data Analysis and Scientific Programming

Did you know?! There's a Fresno Data Science Meetup that uses quite a bit of Python. You should check 'em out if data science is your jam!

Python is a language heavily used in academia, data analysis, and scientific computing. Python's simple syntax makes it a great choice for academics who might not be primarily software developers, and the plethora of tools means you can do just about anything. Some packages you may want to check out include:

AstroPy is a community effort to provide a core package for astronomy work.
BioPython is a set of freely available tools for biological computation.
NumPy provides support for large multi-dimensional arrays and matrices, and the higher level mathematical functions to operate on them.
Pandas provides high-performance, easy-to-use data structures and data analysis tools.
SciPy is an ecosystem of open-source software for mathematics, science, and engineering.

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Keras - A high-level neural network and deep learning API that can run on top of TensorFlow, CNTK, or Theano.
PyTorch - A deep learning platform developed by engineers in Facebook's AI Research Group.
TensorFlow - An open source machine learning framework developed by the Google Brain Team.
scikit-learn - A machine learning framework built on NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib.

Microcontrollers

BBC micro:bit is a microcontroller made for education that is loaded with features and runs a version of Python called MicroPython. The micro:bit Python editor makes it easy to flash code onto the board.
CircuitPython is Adafruit's own version of MicroPython. They've added new features and ship CircuitPython on several of their own boards.
MicroPython is a lean, efficient version of Python that is made to run on microcontrollers.
RaspberryPi is a very small single-board computer. The RaspberryPi runs Linux, and works very well with Python.

Who uses Python?

Local companies/organizations

BIG companies using Python

Facebook uses Python to manage their ever-growing infrastructure.
Google has always been a big supporter of Python, even making it one of their official languages -- the others being Java, C++, and Go -- that engineers are allowed to use for production apps and services.
Industrial Light and Magic uses Python in their CGI pipeline. That's right -- Python has helped create many of their blockbuster movies!
Instagram is built in Python, and is probably the largest Django deployment in the world.
Netflix mainly uses Python for data analysis, but some of their infrastructure and services are Python-powered.
Pinterest was originally built with Django, and more recently moved to a custom framework built on top of Flask.
Reddit served 542 million requests across every month in 2017, making it the 4th most-visited website in the United States. Reddit is powered entirely by Python.
Spotify uses Python for back-end services and data analysis.