[Python-Dev] Drop support for old unsupported FreeBSD and Linux kernels?

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 12:27 PM, Victor Stinner
<victor.stinner at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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

RHEL 5 uses 2.6.28, and still has "extended life cycle support" until
2020, but I guess no-one should be running Python 3.7 on that. CentOS
6 and RHEL 6 use 2.6.32, and their EOL is also 2020 (or 2024 for RHEL
6 with extended life cycle support). Redhat does ship and support 3.6
on CentOS/RHEL 6 through their "software collections" product, and
presumably is planning to do the same for 3.7.

It is a little surprising to see a Redhat employee suggest dropping
support for RHEL 6. Hopefully you know what you're doing :-)

-n

-- 
Nathaniel J. Smith -- https://vorpus.org