I wonder if a midpoint for this sort of work would be if a major distro or several declared they would move to GIL-free Python?
System python at least is generally only recommended to be used for system libs, and that's a relatively supportable set. Developers use virtualenv's and their own specific interpreter, but it would certainly move the needle on what language people were by default scripting and thinking in.
This here: "The GIL will still be optionally available as an interpreter startup-time option" seems like a midpoint. Maybe it will even be GIL-by-default for some versions.
System python at least is generally only recommended to be used for system libs, and that's a relatively supportable set. Developers use virtualenv's and their own specific interpreter, but it would certainly move the needle on what language people were by default scripting and thinking in.