I found something refreshing about the Python community as well. There's no griping or fighting with Sun or arguing about the (ir)relevance of the JCP. All of that stuff is incredibly distracting, not to mention annoying. The Python folks don't have any of those concerns. Their only concerns are making Python better, and doing cool stuff with it. Sean Gallagher reports that he had several conversations on how the PSF might attract the attention of Sun or IBM. While I'm sympathetic to the desire for validation, attention, and money, I think that the Python community is better off without the large technology vendors weighing in. There are lots of small groups of people working on interesting stuff in the Python community. Once the big guys show up, all of that will be wiped out.

I also found an interesting contrast between the PSF and the ASF. The PSF is fortunate to be focused on one thing: Python. The ASF has gone from HTTP to Java, XML, Perl, Tcl, and beyond. While I appreciate the diversity of the ASF (indeed, when I go to ApacheCon I spend more time hanging out with the httpd guys rather than the Java/XML guys), I've bee pondering about the size. Is bigger truly better? So it was very interesting to see the PSF, which is a younger, smaller organization compared to the ASF.