Ubuntu 11.04 added support for multiarch libraries: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MultiarchSpec http://wiki.debian.org/ReleaseGoals/MultiArch At the moment, I don't care about issue 1294959 which I think addresses building multiarch flavors of Python: http://bugs.python.org/issue1294959 I have a much more short-term concern, which is being able to build Python from source *on* a multiarch Debian/Ubuntu: http://bugs.python.org/issue11715 The problem is that without this patch (or something like it), several of the extension modules do not build because setup.py does not search the directories in which the third party .so files live. The patch in the tracker is fairly straightforward and should be robust enough for platforms without dpkg-architecture(1). It's adapted from the patch in the Ubuntu source package. I would like to apply this patch (or its moral equivalent) to all active, affected branches of Python, meaning 2.5 through 2.7, and 3.1 through 3.3, as soon as possible. Without this, it will be very difficult for anyone on future Ubuntu or Debian releases to build Python. Since it's not a new feature, but just a minor fix to the build process, I think it should be okay to back port. Please comment here or in the tracker for issue 11715. Cheers, -Barry