[Distutils] Distribute bootstrap question

[Doug Hellmann]

I just released my first new piece of software using Distribute, and  
I'm still confused about whether I have the packaging correct.  I  
think not, because a user has reported receiving a SandboxViolation  
error when trying to install the package with easy_install (bug report  
at: http://bitbucket.org/dhellmann/ical2org/issue/1/unable-to-install-ical2org-with) 
.  The relevant portion of the error message seems to be:

Searching for distribute
Reading http://pypi.python.org/simple/distribute/
Reading http://packages.python.org/distribute
Best match: distribute 0.6.10
Downloading http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/d/distribute/distribute-0.6.10.tar.gz#md5 
=99fb4b3e4ef0861bba11aa1905e89fed
Processing distribute-0.6.10.tar.gz
Running distribute-0.6.10/setup.py -q bdist_egg --dist-dir /tmp/ 
easy_install-aO9HwB/distribute-0.6.10/egg-dist-tmp-woULY8
Before install bootstrap.
Scanning installed packages
Setuptools installation detected at /System/Library/Frameworks/ 
Python.framework/Versions/2.5/Extras/lib/python
Non-egg installation
Removing elements out of the way...
Renaming /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/ 
Extras/lib/python/setuptools-0.6c7-py2.5.egg-info into /System/Library/ 
Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/Extras/lib/python/ 
setuptools-0.6c7-py2.5.egg-info.OLD.1263800301.89
error: SandboxViolation: mkdir('/System/Library/Frameworks/ 
Python.framework/Versions/2.5/Extras/lib/python/setuptools-0.6c7- 
py2.5.egg-info',) {}

That looks like the script is trying to install Distribute itself,  
based I suppose on having it in the install_requires list in my  
setup.py.  I added distribute to install_requires after on an apparent  
misreading of the instructions on http://pypi.python.org/pypi/ 
distribute.

So, my questions:

1. While researching the problem this morning, I came across the  
instructions at http://packages.python.org/distribute/setuptools.html#using-setuptools-without-bundling-it 
, which seem like a much more sensible way to bootstrap the  
installation of Distribute than install_requires.  Should I have used  
that instead of install_requires?

2. If I don't require Distribute for installation, will my package  
work with the older setuptools (assuming I'm not using any Distribute- 
specific features, which I don't think I am, but I'm not sure I know  
what those are).  In a nutshell, do I need to force my user to install  
Distribute at all before using my package?  And if so, what is the  
preferred way of doing that?

Thanks,
Doug