Python and "dead" batteries

I don't think the 2026 number is valid and it still should be slower. At this rate, users who are affected are forced to update their code or not support versions past 3.9. Just because 3.9 is supported until 2026 doesn't really help the issue. Unsuspecting developers could be writing new code today that won't be supported on 3.10 when it's released around 2021. That's effectively only two years between looking perfectly safe to use and requiring it to be changed; and only one year before their users start complaining about warnings. The python team should mark the documentation as deprecated for a *lot* longer than that so users writing new code have a lot longer to notice the deprecation and stop using those features.

This is one of the things I think Linus gets right with Linux: his uncompromising stance toward breaking users and the general policy of very long deprecation cycles -- typically features aren't removed until there is a reasonable argument that nobody is using them. If more libraries and programming languages took that stance we'd be in a much better position. Too many projects just break things and foist the pain and responsibility on their user base.