Programming language: Last release for Python 2.7 released

“I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of Python 2.7.18”, the release manager writes Benjamin Peterson on the Python mailing list. Python 2.7.18 is a special release, because it is the last version of Python 2.7 and thus also of Python 2. The official support expired at the end of last year, so Python 2.7 no longer receives support since January 1, 2020.

The developers already quit in 2008 with the release of Python 3, which is not compatible with Python 2, no longer supports the 2-branch of the language in the long term. Version 2.7 of Python, which appeared in 2010, was the last major release of this branch. The team could not meet the initially planned end of support for Python 2 in 2015, because at this point too much software had not yet been ported to the new version 3.

The Python developers then decided to end support by five more years postpone. Since then at the latest it has been clear that the end of this version branch will come in 2020. The now released version 2.7.18 was published again in the usual procedure and was therefore only released a few months after the official end of support.

In his announcement, the release manager Peterson looks back on the long development of Python 2.7, which has also received large backports, which was traditionally very unusual. In order to guarantee the security of the users, however, exceptions have been made. In addition, Peterson thanks the Python team, which has maintained the official binary files for Windows and MacOS for a long time. Peterson ends his email with “Long live Python 3”.

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