diff --git a/packages/build/python/Dockerfile b/packages/build/python/Dockerfile
index 43809b813..929c7a255 100644
--- a/packages/build/python/Dockerfile
+++ b/packages/build/python/Dockerfile
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # name: python
 # group: build
 # depends: [build-essential, pip_cache]
-# notes: installs core `python3` packages and `pip`
+# notes: installs core `python`, `uv` and `pip` in a conda environment
 #---
 ARG BASE_IMAGE
 FROM ${BASE_IMAGE}
@@ -20,7 +20,12 @@ ENV PYTHON_VERSION=${PYTHON_VERSION_ARG} \
     PIP_CACHE_PURGE=true \
     PIP_ROOT_USER_ACTION=ignore \
     TWINE_NON_INTERACTIVE=1 \
-    DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+    DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
+    PATH=/opt/conda/bin:$PATH \
+    MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX=/opt/conda \
+    MAMBA_EXE=/usr/local/bin/micromamba \
+    CONDA_PREFIX=/opt/conda \
+    UV_COMPILE_BYTECODE=1
 
-COPY install.sh /tmp/install_python.sh 
+COPY install.sh /tmp/install_python.sh
 RUN /tmp/install_python.sh
diff --git a/packages/build/python/config.py b/packages/build/python/config.py
index d2861ab92..977ebd368 100644
--- a/packages/build/python/config.py
+++ b/packages/build/python/config.py
@@ -7,13 +7,13 @@ def python(version, requires=None) -> list:
 
     pkg['name'] = f'python:{version}'
     pkg['build_args'] = {'PYTHON_VERSION_ARG': version}
-    
+
     if Version(version) == PYTHON_VERSION:
         pkg['alias'] = 'python'
 
     if requires:
         pkg['requires'] = requires
-        
+
     return pkg
 
 package = [
diff --git a/packages/build/python/install.sh b/packages/build/python/install.sh
index 189b10f4c..b793066e0 100755
--- a/packages/build/python/install.sh
+++ b/packages/build/python/install.sh
@@ -1,54 +1,59 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
-# Python installer
+# Python installer using Micromamba
 set -x
 
-apt-get update
-apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-	python${PYTHON_VERSION} \
-	python${PYTHON_VERSION}-dev
-
-which python${PYTHON_VERSION}
-return_code=$?
-set -e
-
-if [ $return_code != 0 ]; then
-   echo "-- using deadsnakes ppa to install Python ${PYTHON_VERSION}"
-   add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
-   apt-get update
-   apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-	  python${PYTHON_VERSION} \
-	  python${PYTHON_VERSION}-dev
+curl -Ls https://micro.mamba.pm/api/micromamba/linux-$(uname -m | sed 's/x86_64/64/;s/aarch64/aarch64/')/latest | tar -xvj bin/micromamba
+mv bin/micromamba /usr/local/bin/
+
+export MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX=/opt/conda
+export CONDA_PREFIX=/opt/conda
+export PATH=/opt/conda/bin:$PATH
+mkdir -p $MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX
+eval "$(micromamba shell hook -s posix)"
+micromamba shell init -s bash -r $MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX
+
+# Install Python and core packages in base environment
+micromamba install -y -n base \
+    python=${PYTHON_VERSION} \
+    setuptools \
+    packaging \
+    "cython<3" \
+    wheel \
+    pip \
+    uv \
+    twine \
+    psutil \
+    pkginfo
+
+# Add micromamba initialization to /etc/profile.d for all shells
+cat > /etc/profile.d/mamba.sh << 'EOF'
+export MAMBA_EXE=/usr/bin/micromamba
+export MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX=/opt/conda
+export PATH=/opt/conda/bin:$PATH
+
+if [ -f "${MAMBA_EXE}" ]; then
+    __mamba_setup="$("$MAMBA_EXE" shell hook --shell bash --root-prefix "$MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX" 2> /dev/null)"
+    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+        eval "$__mamba_setup"
+    else
+        alias micromamba="$MAMBA_EXE"
+    fi
+    unset __mamba_setup
 fi
 
-rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
-apt-get clean
+micromamba activate
+EOF
 
-curl -sS https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python${PYTHON_VERSION} || \
-curl -sS https://bootstrap.pypa.io/pip/3.6/get-pip.py | python3.6
+chmod +x /etc/profile.d/mamba.sh
+source /etc/profile.d/mamba.sh
 
-ln -s /usr/bin/python${PYTHON_VERSION} /usr/local/bin/python3
-#ln -s /usr/bin/pip${PYTHON_VERSION} /usr/local/bin/pip3
-
-# this was causing issues downstream (e.g. Python2.7 still around in Ubuntu 18.04, \
-# and in cmake python enumeration where some packages expect that 'python' is 2.7) \
-#RUN update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python3 1 && \  \
-#    update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/pip pip /usr/bin/pip3 1 \
+ln -sf /opt/conda/bin/python /usr/local/bin/python3
+ln -sf /opt/conda/bin/python /usr/local/bin/python
+ln -sf /opt/conda/bin/pip /usr/local/bin/pip3
+ln -sf /opt/conda/bin/pip /usr/local/bin/pip
 
+# Verify installation
 which python3
 python3 --version
-
 which pip3
 pip3 --version
-
-python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip pkginfo --index-url https://pypi.org/simple
-
-pip3 install --no-cache-dir --verbose --no-binary :all: psutil
-pip3 install --upgrade --no-cache-dir \
-   setuptools \
-   packaging \
-   'Cython<3' \
-   wheel 
-
-pip3 install --upgrade --no-cache-dir --index-url https://pypi.org/simple \
-   twine
-