&gt; The distinction is whose fault is that, the lazy Python3 core dev team or the lazy userbase?<p>I agree that Python core devs should have not made such breaking changes, And hindsight is 20&#x2F;20, even for them. I also am a bit annoyed that they&#x27;ve been pretty stubborn about adding additional compatibility layers between the versions. (If six (maintained by a core dev) can help with compatibility, why can&#x27;t the standard library have those shims too? :)<p>I also like Go&#x27;s approach to unicode better than Python 3&#x27;s approach.<p>&quot;harassing&quot; the core devs may have been helpful in back in 2008-2012, however, at this point it&#x27;s a little late to start complaining. I doubt it will help at all.<p>&gt; Python2&#x27;s conservatism is starting to be seen as an asset<p>I totally agree. It&#x27;s an unfortunate problem.<p>&gt; is Python3 inevitable?<p>Yes. It&#x27;s only a matter of time.<p>- Django is planning on removing Python 2 support from master in January.<p>- Nearly all popular libraries are compatible or have compatible forks.<p>- Large python projects, like OpenStack are putting in the work to be Python 3 compatible. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogs.rdoproject.org&#x2F;7894&#x2F;status-of-python-3-in-openstack-mitaka" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogs.rdoproject.org&#x2F;7894&#x2F;status-of-python-3-in-opens...</a><p>- Ubuntu and Fedora now ship without &#x2F;usr&#x2F;bin&#x2F;python available by default. RHEL&#x2F;CentOS 8 may very well do the same.<p>- Debian has plans of removing Python 2 completely from it&#x27;s repository not long after PSF drops support.