Knowing little of Python, is it the case that the GIL was not initially deemed a bad scheme because multi-processor x86 machines were a rarity in the mid-90's (when Python was young)?  I presume that Sun desired Java to be multiprocessor friendly because it had multi-cpu SPARC machines at the time of Java's design?<p>And, for those using Python for high-volume production systems, how do you cope?  Do you run one process (say a Zope instance) per core and load balance?