(original) (raw)

+1 to both of your specific proposals.

More generally, I think it makes good sense to allow dropping support for a platform in the next major Python release after vendor support for the platform stops. Even we say we support something, it will break quickly without buildbot validation.

On Thu, Jan 18, 2018, at 12:27, Victor Stinner wrote:
\> Hi,
\>
\> I'm working on a exhaustive list of platforms supported by Python:
\>
\> http://vstinner.readthedocs.io/cpython.html#supported-platforms
\>
\>
\> I noticed that the extended support phase of Windows Vista is expired,
\> so I proposed to drop Vista support:
\>
\> "Drop support of Windows Vista in Python 3.7"
\> https://bugs.python.org/issue32592
\> https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/5231
\>
\> Python has an explicit policy for Windows support, extract of the PEP 11:
\>
\> "CPython’s Windows support now follows \[Microsoft product support
\> lifecycle\]. A new feature release X.Y.0 will support all Windows
\> releases whose extended support phase is not yet expired. Subsequent
\> bug fix releases will support the same Windows releases as the
\> original feature release (even if the extended support phase has
\> ended)."
\>
\>
\> For Linux and FreeBSD, we have no explicit rule. CPython code base
\> still contains code for FreeBSD 4... but FreeBSD 4 support ended
\> longer than 10 years ago (January 31, 2007). Maybe it's time to drop
\> support of these old platforms to cleanup the CPython code base to
\> ease its maintainance.
\>
\> I proposed: "Drop FreeBSD 9 and older support:"
\>
\> https://bugs.python.org/issue32593
\> https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/5232
\>
\> FreeBSD 9 supported ended 1 year ago (December 2016).
\>
\> FreeBSD support:
\>
\> https://www.freebsd.org/security/
\> https://www.freebsd.org/security/unsupported.html
\>
\>
\> CPython still has compatibility code for Linux 2.6, whereas the
\> support of Linux 2.6.x ended in August 2011, longer than 6 years ago.
\> Should we also drop support for old Linux kernels? If yes, which ones?
\> The Linux kernel has LTS version, the oldest is Linux 3.2 (support
\> will end in May, 2018).
\>
\> Linux kernel support:
\>
\> https://www.kernel.org/category/releases.html
\>
\>
\> Note: I'm only talking about changing the future Python 3.7\. We should
\> have the same support policy than for Windows. If Python 3.x.0
\> supports a platform, this support should be kept in the whole lifetime
\> of the 3.x cycle (until it's end-of-line).
\>
\> Victor
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