In a recent email entitled "Getting ready for Python 3.5," Canonical's Barry Warsaw unveils the company's plans for switching to the Python 3.5 dynamic programming language as the default Python 3 version in the upcoming Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf) operating system, due for release on October 22, 2015.

Last month, during the Ubuntu Online Summit (UOS) event for Ubuntu 15.10 that took place on May 5-7 on the UbuntuOnAir channel on YouTube, we reported that Canonical had plans to make Ubuntu 16.04 LTS the first Ubuntu release to have Python 3 by default, but it looks like it will land in Wily Werewolf instead.

"For Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf), we want to make Python 3.5 the default Python 3 version. It's currently undecided whether we will keep Python 3.4 as a supported version, but a lot of that depends on how easily an archive port to Python 3.5 goes," says Barry Warsaw. "Ideally, we'd be able to make the switch to 3.5 now ahead of the planned 16.04 LTS release."

Work started on rebuilding Ubuntu packages that depend on Python 3

Barry Warsaw reports that work has started on rebuilding Ubuntu packages that depend on the Python 3 for the i386 (32-bit) and amd64 (64-bit) architectures in a separate PPA (Personal Package Archive). At the moment, only a partial rebuild was done for the x86 architecture, but everything looks normal.

Python 3.5 is currently used by default in said PPA with Python 3.4 enabled. Of course, the ultimate goal is to have a 100% success rate on building all Ubuntu packages that depend on Python 3 on the third-party PPA, and then they can be uploaded upstream, in Ubuntu 15.10's default software repositories.

The team also plans to prepare a QA stack that can be used for running DEP-8 tests for Ubuntu packages, but they need your help to go on with the rebuilding/testing process. Please read the entire announcement to see how you can help make Python 3.5 the default Python 3 implementation for Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf).