Ubuntu Plans For Python 3 By Default For Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu Plans For Python 3 By Default For Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Another one of the interesting discussions this week at the Ubuntu Online Summit was with regards to plans for merging off of Python 2 and providing Python 3 by default over the next year, in time for the long-term support release of Ubuntu 16.04...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-16.04-Python-Plans

[uid313]

GIMP is a culprit

GIMP still relies on Python 2.

[schmidtbag]

GIMP still relies on Python 2.

GIMP (to my knowledge) also relies on GTK2+, which in my opinion is a much worse thing to be held back by. Python 2 can be installed in less than 30MB and can still be used by several other applications.

[jo-erlend]

GIMP still relies on Python 2.

That's not influenced by the default in Ubuntu. You'll be able to use Python 2 as long as you need it. You just won't have to have Python 2 installed just in case. If you install the GIMP, it'll require Python 2 and it'll be installed when you download it.

In short; don't worry. We're not idiots in Ubuntu. A lot of people seem to think we are, but that's primarily because they don't ask us why we're making the choices. And that's really something you could know for yourself if you showed up and discussed it when the discussions were taking place, as they are right now.

We love critical questions. We just don't really love getting them a year too late, which is what normally leads to the Ubuntu controversies. We've made it our business to make things accessible to as many people as we possibly can, and that includes newbies. Why would we ever exclude advanced users from other distros? That would be nonsensical. It's an open invitation. All we ask is that we keep it civil and constructive.

I think a lot of people from other distros feel that it we're in competition and that it would be disloyal to contribute to Ubuntu by joining the Ubuntu Online Summit, for instance, but I think that's a miscomprehension of the situation. In Ubuntu, we're trying to do two things at once; 1) we want to be good at technology and 2) we want to hit mainstream. That's all. We're not interested in competing within the GNU-community. We want the mainstream to know we are there and to choose us. Many who come to Ubuntu goes on to Arch or Mint or Debian or Fedora. If you pay attention, we don't mind that. The number of cats that were ever killed by curiosity, is far out-weighed by the number of curious computer users who turned out to be more interested than they thought they were.

We take the mainstream, the heat, hate, frustration, fury and anger. Yes, we also take all the newbies and we do a seriously good job at educating them in how our world works. Who else has a site like AskUbuntu.com? And if some crazy Linux user does or says something stupid, guess who get's the blame? We do. That's fine. We're actively seeking it. We want to take all that, because that's what mainstream is all about. It's not comfortable, calm or radical, but that's not our business.

Ubuntu is the business end of an arrow. The GNU+Linux community is the reason the arrow was shot. I'm both a fundamentalist and a radical and I think that's what makes Free Software so special. I believe that Ubuntu should take on Microsoft, Apple and Google and that all other distros should take on us. And if you disagree with that, you should Take On Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914

Sorry about that rant, but it was necessary.

[mark45]

Python 2 -> 3 is one of the worst and longest sagas in the software industry I'm tired hearing about.

[brent]

Python 2 -> 3 is one of the worst and longest sagas in the software industry I'm tired hearing about.

Seems to be going rather well compared to e.g. Perl 5 -> Perl 6.

Nowadays I'm exclusively using Python 3 and I have done so for about two years, with no problems whatsoever. Even PyPy has official Python 3 support now.

[uid313]

Python 2 is needed by

aislerot
alacart
apt-xapian-index
apturl
checkbox-gui
compiz
deja-dup
duplicity
gconf2
gdm
gimp
gnome-shell
gstreamer
ibus
libatk
libatspi
libcairo
libdbus
libgdk
libglib2
libgtk-3libpango
libpurple
libreoffice-gnome
oneconf
python-apt
samba
software-center
totem
transmission
unity
update-manager
zeitgeist

[ObiWan]

As Arch defaults to python3 as default for a long time now, they have a long list of packages that require python2:

https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/python2/

(just look at the required by list, but alot of the depends are just makedepends, or python 2 packages)

[DanLamb]

Python 3 has been a no go for many developers as large amounts of the Python ecosystem have been Python 2.x exclusive.

Super big popular Python related projects like Apache Spark, for example, simply won't work with Python 3. And they will tell you, the community they serve is mostly on 2.x

System Python and Server Side / Science Python do have very different communities.

[TheBlackCat]

Super big popular Python related projects like Apache Spark, for example, simply won't work with Python 3. And they will tell you, the community they serve is mostly on 2.x

Apache Spark supports Python 3.4 as of March.