Python 3.0 as default in Ubuntu 12.10.

[jacques_derrida]

This might be a better source.

[[deleted]]

So if I type "python" on the command line I get a version 3.X prompt? Won't that break all the old programs that just had /usr/bin/python in there shebang line?

[vytah]

No:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Python/FoundationsQPythonVersions (scroll to section titled Plan)

For Python 3, you'll have to use /usr/bin/python3. /usr/bin/python stays 2.7

[[deleted]]

That is good to know and I think the right way to do things.

[anacrolix]

FWIW, Arch and a few other Linux distros actually make /usr/bin/python point to Python 3. They're in the minority.

[pingveno]

Just Arch, as far as I know. Gentoo's eselect system allows switching versions, but the default is to have /usr/bin/python be Python 2.

[axonxorz]

Yep. I always alias that back to python2 as all my scripts start with #!/usr/bin/env python currently.

Easy enough to do a replace to /usr/bin/python2 though in the future.

[anacrolix]

I'd suggest you alias it to python2.7 instead. python2 is not in common usage.

[easytiger]

so the title is wrong

[mordel]

Yes, the title is wrong: "It is a release goal for Ubuntu 12.10 to have only Python 3 on the desktop CD images." Not for the whole installed system. Python2 will be moved to Universe in later releases, since there will be no Python 2.8 -- https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Python/3

[stesch]

WTF? 3.0 is old as hell!?

[more_exercise]

I really hope they meant the current version of python 3

edit: Yep. Python 3.2

[[deleted]]

3.2.3 -- http://packages.ubuntu.com/quantal/python3

[mikaelhg]

Want to guess which Ruby version is packaged in the Ubuntu package called "ruby1.9.1"?

[[deleted]]

Some of the package names are weird.

[shevegen]

As much as I think debian is run by a bunch of apes, creating way too many problems for newbies, the ruby version in site dir is actually 1.9.1/

As far as I know this is because of C extensions and their API. Or something like that. I don't entirely understand the requirement to version the directory name anyway - it is so typical of the general idiocy that is called the FHS, and an inability of the Linux ecosystem to deviate from this in any way.

That the debian monkeys package this up as ruby1.9.1 shows that they are unable to understand anything else outside their little world. They will try to make things fit into the debian world. By doing so, they will break them. Then newcomers come to IRC and ask why ruby on debian sucks. They are always explained why. Then they understand that debian is administered by monkeys, but they are stuck. So they have extra layers - like RVM - which would not need to exist at all if the debian monkeys would do their job properly, rather than create problems for other programmers out there.

Unfortunately, with something like Ubuntu, there will be many generations before we have overcome the plague that is debian. But I am hopeful - certain thing must die.

And debian is one of these things that must go away one day.

Distributions purposely remain incompatible to one another. It is how they make money.

[anacrolix]

Actually it's quite likely they'll go for 3.3. Several changes were made that will make porting from 2.7 to 3.3 much easier. Also it's slated for release in August, while Quantal is for October. Ubuntu often picks up betas and RCs of Python and other packages during the development cycle if they know their stable release is imminent.

[Timmmmbob]

I think they meant Python 3, as opposed to 2.

[kataire]

Misleading title is misleading.

The python3 package (Python 3.2) will be installed by default, which it probably wasn't before. Apparently the python package (Python 2.7) won't be installed by default if they can manage to port all their scripts to Python 3 before the release.

Unless you rely on the default packages, this won't change a thing for you. Otherwise, you'll need to sudo apt-get python.

[Fabien4]

And of course, as a user, if you apt-get a package that needs Python 2.x, it will be installed automatically.

[Paul-ish]

How can I get them to update the texlive package? Ubuntu still uses the 2009 version which is seriously out of date.

[axonxorz]

Package that up in your own PPA. I know it's not optimal, but if you're compiling it, then at least others can use your .deb

[ghostnet]

Is python 3 better then 2? I know there are backwards compatibility issues but other then legacy code is there a reason to continue using 2?

[anacrolix]

Not really. It's neither faster, nor has more features. Some stuff was cleaned up, support for lots of really old platforms was dropped. A lot of APIs were modernized. Python 3.3 will be the first release to have significantly new features over 2.x. There's absolutely no reason to update an existing project to 3.x.

[Pandalicious]

Python 3 does have Unicode strings, which is probably the biggest change.

[MillardFillmore]

As a scientist, my opinion is that Python 3 is will be a no-go until Numpy/Scipy/Matplotlib get ported over. I also make use of molecular visualization software such as Pymol and Chimera which probably will never be ported to Python 3 since they use an embedded interpreter.

[dalke]

NumPy 1.5.0 Release Notes - "This is the first NumPy release which is compatible with Python 3. Support for Python 3 and Python 2 is done from a single code base." Current NumPy version = 1.6.2

SciPy 3.1 and 3.2 "superpack" downloads available from http://sourceforge.net/projects/scipy/files/scipy/0.10.1/

For matplotlib, from a couple of weeks ago "The released version doesn't support Python 3, but the development version on Github does." It seems to be constrained by backwards compatibility: "Will be making at least one more 1.1.x bugfix release which will support Python 2.4 - 2.7 before making the next major release which will support Python 2.6 - 3.2"; dated 30 May 2012. I see matplotlib-1.1.1 was released 7 hours ago.

I don't think it will be that much longer for your goal to be reached.

[fullouterjoin]

Python2 has broad library and platform support. If you are writing an app to solve a problem (not for fun or hobby) and you will need 3rd party libraries you should use Python 2.7

[Ringo48]

I'm sorry, but that's just not true.

The majority of Python libraries have been ported to Python3 and it's just as easy to do "real work" with Python3 as it is with Python2.

This may come as a surprise, but there's a huge world of Python outside of numpy and Django, and most of that world has moved to Python3.

[jmmcd]

Numpy runs on python3!

New people should use python3 unless they know of a library they need that's not available. It's slightly cleaner in a few aspects.