id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	resolution	keywords	cc	launchpad_bug
1658	drop support for Python < 2.6	zooko	zooko	"Let's drop support for versions of Python < 2.6. According to distrowatch's tables about the versions of packages that come with distros, this would exclude Tahoe-LAFS 1.10 from being usable with the included Python on the following versions of major distros:

||= distro =||= excluded version =||= excluded version release date =||= oldest supported[*] version =||= oldest supported[*] release date =||= Python in oldest supported[*] =||= notes =||= next version =||= Python in next version =||
||=[http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=fedora Fedora]   =||=10  =||=2008-11-25 =||=15        =||=2011-05-24 =||=2.7 =||= =||=rawhide will be 17 =||=2.7.2 =||
|| [http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ubuntu Ubuntu]    || 8.10 || 2008-10-30  || 10.04 LTS  || 2010-04-29  || 2.6  || || will be 12.04 precise ||2.7.2 ||
||=[http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=debian Debian]   =||=5.0 =||=2009-02-15 =||=6.0       =||=2011-02-06 =||=2.6 =||= =||=unstable sid will be 7.0 =||=2.7.2 =||
||=[http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=redhat RedHat]   =||=5.7 =||=2011-07-21 =||=5.7       =||=2011-07-21 =||=2.4 =||= I'm told that people tend to install their own newer version of Python when they want to use newer Python programs on older RHEL  =||=(current, not next) 6.2 =||=2.6.6 =||

Among other benefits, dropping support for Pythons older than 2.6 would allow us to remove the [source:git/src/allmydata/_auto_deps.py?annotate=blame&rev=76e7f0ad4b0d109a9a92e451ac9b3c9e8a827eb0#L15 dependency on simplejson] and the (complex imperatively decided) [source:git/src/allmydata/_auto_deps.py?annotate=blame&rev=76e7f0ad4b0d109a9a92e451ac9b3c9e8a827eb0#L92 dependency on pysqlite].

See comment:11 -- apparently Python ≥ 2.6 is already ubiquitous in the *BSD world.

[*] that is, the oldest OS version supported by the OS distributors and still receiving security patches."	enhancement	closed	normal	1.10.0	packaging	1.9.0	fixed	packaging backward-compatibility review-needed