RELEASED Python 2.3.4, release candidate 1

[Anthony Baxter]

beliavsky at aol.com wrote:
> I wonder why the Linux installation needs to be more tedious than the
> Windows counterpart. The problem is of course not specific to Python.
> There are many Linux distributions, running on different kernels, but
> maybe binaries that have been tested on the "major" distributions like
> Debian, Red Hat / Fedora, SUSE, and Mandrake could be created. Compare
> the instructions:

Please note that we usually do supply RPMs for released versions of
Python. This takes work, though, and it's not generally done for these
interim releases. In the case of a release candidate for a bug fix
release, we're talking about a lifetime of about a week - hardly worth
doing the work for that little a time. I certainly anticipate that RPMs
will be available for 2.3.4 (and thanks again go to Sean R. for doing
the work to make this happen).

As to why we provide an installer on Windows by default - most windows
users do not have access to a compiler. Most Linux and Unix users do.

As far as providing packages in other formats - well, this is an
open source effort. Unless someone steps forward and offers the
packaging work, it won't get done. Aside from anything else, I
certainly don't have the tools needed to make packages for Debian,
Gentoo, or whatever. (And please, I do not want to hear anyone
telling me that "obviously I should be running Debian/Gentoo/
some other distribution" -- I'm happy enough with the software
I'm running.)

Note also that most distributors of packaged Linux provide packaged
versions of Python in their distributions. One of my goals with the
way I do maintenance releases is to make them as simple and as safe
an upgrade as possible - this then hopefully means that the vendors
will update their packaged Python sooner rather than later.

hope this information is helpful,
Anthony
-- 
Anthony Baxter     <anthony at interlink.com.au>
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.