I don't know what guides you're reading but I haven't touched easy_install in at least a decade. It's successor, pip, had effectively replaced all use cases for it by around 2010.
It is mentioned in the "Explanations and Discussions" section [0] of the linked Python Packaging guide.
Old indeed, but can still be found at the top level of the current docs.
[0] https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/#explanations-and-dis...
> easy_install, now deprecated, was released in 2004 as part of Setuptools.
I don't know what guides you're reading but I haven't touched easy_install in at least a decade. It's successor, pip, had effectively replaced all use cases for it by around 2010.