ActiveState offers Python 2.7 support past the EoL
RHEL 7 supports all software shipped as part of the release for five years, maintenance for give years after that, and will provide further support after that by contract.
Ubuntu 18.04 has four more months of full support and then an additional three years of maintenance. After that, “extended security maintenance for customers.”
SLES 15, which ships both Python 2 and 3, has general support until 2028 but customers can buy support for it until 2031.
Lots of options for those who need Python 2 support going forward.
Many distros have committed to supporting it for much longer, Debian will support it till 2022 for example. But those people are just putting duck tape on the holes, they’re not manufacturing any new pythons.
I don’t think python 2.7 has enough advantage at this point that supporting it would provide a large amount of value. What feature did it have besides momentum up till now?
I don’t think it’s really right to say this was extended at all; April is the release of the final version of 2.7, whose code-freeze was today (Jan 1 2020). There’s some information on this more detailed page. The “sunset” date advertised is when development ends, but it takes a few months for them to release, apparently.
The EOL for python 2 remains unchanged, as can be seen here http://devguide.python.org/.
The headline of the post on python.org is a bit misleading, and as a result, so is this one.
This posts’s headline should read closer to “Python 2.7 final release scheduled for April 2020”.
The headline has been updated to match python.org 🎉
Perhaps when push comes to shove someone will step forward and provide continuing support for Python 2.7.
Indeed, and many already have:
Lots of options for those who need Python 2 support going forward.
Many distros have committed to supporting it for much longer, Debian will support it till 2022 for example. But those people are just putting duck tape on the holes, they’re not manufacturing any new pythons.
I don’t think python 2.7 has enough advantage at this point that supporting it would provide a large amount of value. What feature did it have besides momentum up till now?
PyPy claims to support Python 2 indefinitely. In addition, there’s a Python 2 fork called Tauthon.
Does anybody know why this was done? Was this extension planned (after Jan 1 had been announced as the EOL) or did something unexpected happen?
I don’t think it’s really right to say this was extended at all; April is the release of the final version of 2.7, whose code-freeze was today (Jan 1 2020). There’s some information on this more detailed page. The “sunset” date advertised is when development ends, but it takes a few months for them to release, apparently.
I found this pretty confusing too!
Nothing was done; the chosen title for this submission is just wrong.
I’ve suggested the original title for this submission.
They are probably timing the release to coincide with PyCon.