"azure" v5.0.0 meta-package deprecation

[lmazuel]

Starting with version 5.0.0 the azure meta-package is deprecated and can no longer be installed. You can still install specific older versions of this package as necessary with pip install azure==4.0.0

The rational behind this decision:

• The SDKs in the Azure world are separated into one package for each service. This has lead to more than 200 hundred packages released on PyPI. Each of these has their own versioning (even if they all follow semver).

• Using one unique azure meta-package has a lot of challenges:

  • Versioning of the meta-package can't follow semver while doing regular releases, or it will reach insane numbers pretty quickly.
  • Loosely versioning that package (i.e. not following semver) and allowing breaking changes without major version updates doesn't help and creates more confusion than anything.
  • Installation time of more than 200 hundreds packages is problematic, especially since it's unlikely no-one needs the entire set of possible services at once in the same environment. This scenario is even just impossible on low bandwidth connection or IoT devices.

Considering all those problems, and the lack of satisfying solution, we decided to deprecate this package and encourage installing individual packages according to your needs.

It's important to note that we pay particular attention to dependencies, and there is no known combination of packages that can create dependency issues. Having hundreds of packages makes this challenging, and we have been extremely careful about this problem.
If you're wondering whether a given set of packages are compatible - the answer should always be yes. Please feel free to open an issue on the Github tracker if you experience otherwise.