Coincidentally after reading Armin Ronacher's criticism of the GIL in Python:
http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2014/8/16/the-python-i-would-like-to-see/ I stumbled across this "GIL detector" script: http://yuvalg.com/blog/2011/08/09/the-gil-detector/ Running it on a couple of my systems, I get these figures: CPython 2.7: 0.8/2 cores CPython 3.3: 1.0/2 cores Jython 2.5: 2.3/4 cores CPython 2.6: 0.7/4 cores CPython 3.3: 0.7/4 cores With IronPython, the script raise an exception. The day will come that even the cheapest, meanest entry-level PC will come standard with 8 cores and the GIL will just be an embarrassment, but today is not that day. I wonder whether Ruby programmers are as obsessive about Ruby's GIL? -- Steven -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list