[Python-Dev] Python 3 as a Default in Linux Distros

[Maciej Fijalkowski]

On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 12:36 PM, Paul Moore <p.f.moore at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 24 July 2013 10:12, Bohuslav Kabrda <bkabrda at redhat.com> wrote:
>>
>> - What should user get after using "yum install python"?
>> There are basically few ways of coping with this:
>> 1) Just keep doing what we do, eventually far in the future drop "python"
>> package and never provide it again (= go on only with python3/python4/...
>> while having "yum install python" do nothing).
>> 2) Do what is in 1), but when "python" is dropped, use virtual provide (*)
>> "python" for python3 package, so that "yum install python" installs python3.
>> 3), 4) Rename python to python2 and {don't add, add} virtual provide
>> "python" in the same way that is in 1), 2)
>> 5) Rename python to python2 and python3 to python at one point. This makes
>> sense to me from the traditional "one version in distro + possibly compat
>> package shipping the old" approach in Linux, but some say that Python 2 and
>> Python 3 are just different languages [3] and this should never be done.
>
>
> I'm not a Unix user, but IMO any approach that has the simple package name
> and command "python" disappear or become deprecated, makes me sad. I think
> that "yum install python" should install Python, and "python" should run
> Python. Frankly, the differences between Python 2 and Python 3 are *not* big
> enough that users writing simple scripts and applications for personal or
> local use can't cope with this. Not everyone writes major libraries, and
> it's the casual users you should be looking at.

the problem is not that. The problem is that people *use* major libraries a lot.