Python plans for Ubuntu 11.10 and 12.04
Written by Barry Warsaw in technology on Thu 19 May 2011. Tags: canonical, python, ubuntu, uds-o,
TL;DR: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS will contain only Python 2.7 and 3.2, while Ubuntu 11.10 will contain Python 3.2, 2.7 and possibly 2.6, but possibly not.
Last week, I attended the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Budapest, Hungary. These semi-annual events are open to everyone, and hundreds of people participate both in person and remotely. Budapest's was called UDS-O, where the 'O' stands for Oneiric Ocelot, the code name for Ubuntu 11.10, which will be released in October 2011. This is where we did the majority of planning for what changes, new features, and other developments you'll find in the next version of Ubuntu. UDS-P will be held at the end of the year in Orlando, Florida and will cover the as yet unnamed 12.04 release, which will be a Long Term Support release.
LTS releases are special, because we make longer guarantees for official support: 3 years on the desktop and 5 years on the server. Because of this, we're making decisions now to ensure that 12.04 LTS is a stable, confident platform for years to come.
I attended many sessions, and there is a lot of exciting stuff coming, but I want to talk in some detail about one area that I'm deeply involved in. What's going to happen with Python for Oneiric and 12.04 LTS?
First, a brief summary of where we are today. Natty Narwhal is the code name for Ubuntu 11.04, which was released back in April and is the most recent stable release. It is not an LTS though; the last LTS was Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, release back in October 2010. In Lucid, the default Python (i.e. /usr/bin/python) is 2.6 and Python 2.7 is not officially …