So Russ gets an early look at Nokia's Python, I am seriously jealous and will be badgering him relentlessly over email, irc, im and even sms for info, whilst throwing crufty scraps of Python in his direction and asking "does this work?", "what happens when you run this?" etc. I'd love to be able to try my 25 line Wiki on the phone, maybe not for full-scale editing, but as a resource it would be superb, and the content would be easy to pass from phone to phone or PC as it's only a collection of text files.

From what I hear the only people outside Nokia who've had a serious play with Python so far are those on the Forum Nokia Pro service (which costs a not so cool € 3000 per year), and who are tied heavily down with NDAs, even so the rumours leaking from these chaps seem pretty positive.

This restrictive way of licensing and distributing Python initially seems very strange compared to the usual open source routes, although as the Python FAQ states:

You can do anything you want with the source, as long as you leave the copyrights in and display those copyrights in any documentation about Python that you produce. If you honor the copyright rules, it's OK to use Python for commercial use, to sell copies of Python in source or binary form (modified or unmodified), or to sell products that incorporate Python in some form.

Personally I really hope that Nokia will release their Python source once they're happy with it as a basic product to allow it to flourish as an open source project. This would make it far easier for the series 60 port to keep track with mainstream Python releases and fixes, and also avoid wasting the opportunity for a series 60 handset to run the vast range of publicly available Python software.