So what would be really cool would be to be able to use distutils methods to *install* cctbx in the usual pythonic way, but to keep up with the current mechanism for *working on* cctbx

Actually, thinking about it a bit more, it seems that installing the cctbx with distutils is orthogonal with the way we do it now. I mean, we could keep using the Python wrapper to make the build + source (non-)installation work but then have a script that would create a distutils-based distro. And you know what: the Debian people were working on this about one year ago, as part of creating a proper deb package for the cctbx. They proposed a series of patch to achieve that: if you browse the history of this mailing list, you will find the discussions we had. The Debian developer were Radostan Riedel, Baptiste Carvello and Fr�d�ric-Emmanuel Picca. The last of the tree works at Soleil and his concerns were very similar to those you expressed. He even invited me to visit him, which I did. Unfortunately, neither I nor Nat have followed this project.