I'm about to get a new OS X box on which I will rewrite a bunch of data munging scripts from Perl to Python. I know that there are several port services for OS X (fink, darwin ports, opendarwin). So I am not sure whether to use their port of Python or whether to build from scratch or use the Python image file. Also ActivePython is something of a choice but for some reason not a front-running one for me. I tend to like Gentoo-style compile from source over pre-bundled all-in-one solutions like ActivePython.
I'm not going to do much other than maybe install Plone and do some XML and CSV processing. Most everything I need is in the Python stdlib. Maybe down the road some graphics and web stuff (I like Clever Harold or Pylons for that... but I still ahve not examined the 900 other web app options in Python :) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list