Right. Anaconda is not an ML/DL package: it’s a framework for managing different environments, where an “environment” is a particular combination of versions of python and the various support libraries you need to run some particular application. The whole problem in the python OSS world “writ large” is the everything mutates with great speed. The creators of any given application or higher level packages do it with a particular set of versions of whatever the libraries are that they need. Then they frequently move on with their lives and don’t bother to update their app to the changes in the underlying libraries. That means that you can’t just pull the latest versions of the required packages and expect that version of that app to work.
The DLS notebooks are a classic example of this phenomenon: you can’t just download them, install the latest versions of python, numpy, matplotlib, yadda, yadda and expect them to work. We don’t have “official” instructions for how to get that to work, but here’s a thread from a fellow student with lots of useful pointers.
If you’re going to be living in this world, it’s a great idea to learn how to use Anaconda. It will come in handy, but it’s only a tool for managing environments, not an end in itself.