if ubuntu vesion is 16.04 LTS , then you'll need to use PPA: apt-add-repository ppa:jonathonf/python-3.6 then sudo apt install python3.6 sudo apt install python3.6-dev sudo apt install python3.6-venv wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py sudo python3.6 get-pip.py A simple safe way would be to use an alias. Place this into ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_aliases file: alias python=python3 alias pip3.6=pip so you don't need to use ln (link) do this, but if you only want python3.6 to be default Python : sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python3.6 /usr/local/bin/python3 sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/pip /usr/local/bin/pip3 Note: ln: ln -s {PATH} {you want to link PATH} https://askubuntu.com/questions/320996/how-to-make-python-program-command-execute-python-3 http://blog.codylab.com/python-pyenv-management/ https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2915471/install-a-python-package-into-a-different-directory-using-pip