On behalf of the Python development team and the Python community, I'm happy to announce the release of Python 2.4.2 (release candidate 1). Python 2.4.2 is a bug-fix release. See the release notes at the website (also available as Misc/NEWS in the source distribution) for details of the more than 60 bugs squished in this release. Assuming no major problems crop up, a final release of Python 2.4.2 will follow in about a week's time. For more information on Python 2.4.2, including download links for various platforms, release notes, and known issues, please see: http://www.python.org/2.4.2 Highlights of this new release include: - Bug fixes. According to the release notes, more than 60 have been fixed, including bugs that prevented Python from working properly on 64 bit HP/UX and AIX systems. Highlights of the previous major Python release (2.4) are available from the Python 2.4 page, at http://www.python.org/2.4/highlights.html Enjoy the new release, Anthony Anthony Baxter anthony@python.org Python Release Manager (on behalf of the entire python-dev team)