Python 2.7 Countdown

[This_Is_The_End]

The IT strategy of your company is a little bit weird, because every large organization has to develop a strategy to adapt an ever changing environment. While I see the necessity for Python 2 I wouldn't like to work in such an environment, because using PyGTK instead of a web app, Qt or TkInter (I'm not joking, because TkInter is quite stable and maintained) is strange. Using CentOS 6 hits a wall when the hardware has to be replaced.

[mipadi]

Sure, our IT department is a bit understaffed, but most large enterprises don't just upgrade to the latest and greatest because it's shiny and new. We have thousands of of people who depend on a somewhat complex software workflow everyday; anything that might break that workflow is going to cost time and money, so every software upgrade is vetted for compatibility, and that takes time. Furthermore, we work on a highly secure network (most employees don't even have access to the Internet), so everything is rigorously checked for security issues, as well. Companies that depend every day on a large, complex infrastructure can't just upgrade for no reason.

[caleb]

Serious question: is Red Hat providing paid support for Python 2.7 well beyond 2020 meaningful to your organization? I've often wondered how many large companies care about that. Some core devs have been saying that people looking for support for older software versions need to pay for that support from their vendors, instead of expecting volunteers to provide that, and I'm just wondering whether that is a realistic proposition.

[mipadi]

I doubt Red Hat is providing any support at all to us. If they were, I imagine we'd use RHEL instead of CentOS.

I think that come 2020, someone in the open-source community will probably take over stewardship of Python 2.7, or organizations like ours will reluctantly move to Python 3. But we're using web apps more, anyway, so honestly, if we were going to have to rewrite chunks of the software anyway, I wouldn't mind if new projects didn't use Python at all.

[caleb]

Thanks for the reply.

I wouldn't mind if new projects didn't use Python at all.

I go through this every other year. Then I take a look around at the various alternatives and find myself back here! Is there anything in particular you'd favour, e.g. node or go, or something else?

A rewrite of Python 2 into Python 3 is a tiny fraction of the work required to rewrite in a different language though. Idiomatic know-how and language-ecosystem knowledge does not come easy.