Note that using "whatever version of python the name 'python' maps to in the current shell environment" is more error-prone that specifying which python you mean, such as by executing "/usr/bin/python setup.py" instead of executing "./setup.py". When you build tahoe (by running "make") it will make a copy of bin/allmydata-tahoe in instdir/bin/allmydata-tahoe with the shebang line rewritten to execute the specific version of python that was used when building instead of to execute "/usr/bin/env python".
However, it seems better that the default for lazy people be "whatever 'python' means currently" instead of "whatever 'python' meant to the manufacturer of your operating system".
