title: Can PySpark work without Spark?
body: <p>I have installed PySpark standalone/locally (on Windows) using</p>
  
  <pre><code>pip install pyspark
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I was a bit surprised I can already run <code>pyspark</code> in command line or use it in Jupyter Notebooks and that it does not need a proper Spark installation (e.g. I did not have to do most of the steps in this tutorial <a href="https://medium.com/@GalarnykMichael/install-spark-on-windows-pyspark-4498a5d8d66c" rel="noreferrer">https://medium.com/@GalarnykMichael/install-spark-on-windows-pyspark-4498a5d8d66c</a> ). </p>
  
  <p>Most of the tutorials that I run into say one needs to "install Spark before installing PySpark". That would agree with my view of PySpark being basically a wrapper over Spark. But maybe I am wrong here - can someone explain:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>what is the exact connection between these two technologies?</li>
  <li>why is installing PySpark enough to make it run? Does it actually install Spark under the hood? If yes, where?</li>
  <li>if you install only PySpark, is there something you miss (e.g. I cannot find the <code>sbin</code> folder which contains e.g. script to start history server)</li>
  </ul>