May 13, 2026
Garbage day gets messy
Reverting the incremental GC in Python 3.14 and 3.15
Python hits undo after memory trouble — and commenters are absolutely not chill
TLDR: Python is reversing a new behind-the-scenes cleanup feature after reports that it made real apps use too much memory. Commenters mostly support the rollback, but the thread exploded into bigger fights about Python’s decision-making, Meta’s influence, and whether faster languages are coming for its crown.
Python’s latest cleanup system was supposed to be a smart upgrade. Instead, users started reporting that apps were gobbling up too much memory in real-world use, and now the team is doing the rarest move in software drama: a full walk-back. Python 3.14 and 3.15 are both heading back to the older, more familiar system from 3.13, with developers admitting the newer approach needs a lot more testing before it can return, possibly in 3.16. For regular people: the language tried a new way of tidying up unused data, it caused headaches, and now the old janitor is getting rehired.
But the real fireworks are in the comments. One crowd is basically shouting, “good, revert it!” and calling this the only sane move. Another is stunned the change happened without going through Python’s formal proposal process at all, with one commenter flatly saying they’re “genuinely surprised” that was even possible. Then came the full-on platform wars: one especially spicy post blamed Meta’s influence, dragged the long-running fight over Python’s speed, and even joked that Instagram should switch to PHP/Hack just to “leave Python alone.” Ouch.
And because no tech pile-on is complete without a language war, one commenter used the moment to declare Python may make less and less sense in the age of AI-generated code, bragging about moving 100,000 lines to Go and calling the performance “life changing.” Another compared Python unfavorably to .NET, wondering why Microsoft seems to swap out garbage collection tech without causing surprise production meltdowns. In other words: one rollback, and the internet instantly turned it into a referendum on governance, big tech influence, and whether Python is secretly entering its flop era.
Key Points
- •Python 3.14’s new incremental garbage collector is being reverted after reports of significant memory pressure in production.
- •The rollback applies to both Python 3.14 and Python 3.15, restoring the generational GC used in Python 3.13.
- •The article says reverting in Python 3.15 is acceptable because the release is still in alpha, while doing so in Python 3.14 is unusual for a patch release.
- •The new incremental GC did not go through the PEP process and had already been rolled back shortly before Python 3.13’s final release.
- •Python 3.15 beta 1 is scheduled for 2026-05-05, and Python 3.14.5, previously planned for 2026-06-09, will be released early once the revert is ready.