Python has become the go-to language for data science and machine learning due to its libraries, ease of use, and community support. However, setup issues in Python data science environments can quickly turn a project into a frustrating mess. Common symptoms include package installation errors, unexpected behavior when running code, and environment activation issues. Troubleshooting and fixing these problems requires understanding the underlying causes, such as version conflicts, missing dependencies, or permission issues. To resolve these issues, it's essential to check Python and package versions, review environment files, clean up and recreate environments, use package management tools, and ensure system-level dependencies are installed. Cloud development environments like Gitpod offer a transformative solution by automating and standardizing the setup and maintenance of development environments, eliminating setup headaches and ensuring consistency across team members. By adopting structured solutions such as virtual environments and proper dependency management, teams can prevent the "works on my machine" syndrome and create stable, reproducible Python environments essential for productive data science work.