- we don't know `SAGE_VENV/bin` contains `sage`, but `sys.argv[0]` should
   be the full path to `sage-ipython` and the same directory should have `sage`

--- a/src/sage/misc/sage_ostools.pyx
+++ b/src/sage/misc/sage_ostools.pyx
@@ -32,12 +32,11 @@ def have_program(program, path=None):
         True
         sage: have_program('there_is_not_a_program_with_this_name')
         False
-        sage: from sage.env import SAGE_VENV
-        sage: have_program('sage', os.path.join(SAGE_VENV, 'bin'))
+        sage: have_program('sage', os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0]))
         True
         sage: have_program('sage', '/there_is_not_a_path_with_this_name')
         False
-        sage: have_program('there_is_not_a_program_with_this_name', os.path.join(SAGE_VENV, 'bin'))
+        sage: have_program('there_is_not_a_program_with_this_name', "/bin")
         False
     """
     if path is None: