Not Even My Wife Reads This

I've been using Python 2.6 (and 2.6.1) as my primary Python in Gentoo for months, but it was hard masked until a couple of days ago, which meant nobody except developers and crazy people was supposed to use it. Now it's finally unmasked and in unstable (~x86, ~amd64, etc.), so it's recommended for people who are only slightly brave. Just in time for 2.6.2 to come out so everyone can upgrade again in a few days.

Lots of distributions write a lot of really important tools in Python (such as Gentoo's portage package manager), so they tend to be really conservative about upgrading it. I remember finally giving up on Red Hat when RH 7.3 still shipped the ancient 1.5.2 as the default Python. (Of course I'm still stuck using Red Hat at work. And they still ship a seriously outdated Python version, though I have to admit 2.4 isn't nearly as bad as 1.5.2.) Now I just have to wait for Ubuntu and Red Hat and Debian and Mac OS to upgrade, so I can use 2.6 features in Slugathon without feeling like I'm asking my hypothetical users to jump through too many hoops.