April 2026 brought major changes to the Python ecosystem. PEP 772 was accepted, creating a new five-member Python Packaging Council with authority over packaging standards and tools like pip, setuptools, and PyPI. Python 3.15.0 alpha 8 landed as the final alpha before beta freeze, featuring 6–13% JIT speedups depending on platform. The incremental garbage collector introduced in 3.14 is being reverted in 3.14.5 due to memory usage issues in production. PEP 803 defines a new abi3t stable ABI for free-threaded builds, addressing the wheel-explosion problem for compiled extensions. OpenAI's acquisition of Astral (makers of uv, Ruff, and ty) continued to generate community discussion, though the first post-acquisition month showed no change in tool direction. Jazzband, the collaborative Python open source maintenance organization, announced it is shutting down. Other highlights include Starlette 1.0 reaching stability, Polars 1.40.0 expanding its streaming engine, Django security patches, and Google releasing the Gemma 4 open-weights model family with same-day Python ecosystem support.
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Python 3.15.0 Alpha 8: Final Alpha Before Beta FreezeIncremental GC Reverted in 3.14.5 and 3.15PEP 772 Accepted: Python Gets a Packaging CouncilPEP 803 Accepted: Stable ABI Goes Free-ThreadedPEP 800 Accepted: Disjoint Bases in the Type SystemPEP 829 Draft: Replacing .pth Files for Package StartupOther PEPs Filed in DraftSort: