The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source Han shot first (Friends)
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Feb 13, 2026 
Brett Cannon, a Python core developer who drives packaging and tooling like pyproject and lock files. They chat Star Wars viewing orders and the Han-shot-first controversy. They dig into why Python needed a standard lock format, prebuilt CPython binaries, and new tooling like uv and Astral. They also cover governance, STAR voting, and the emotional costs of stewarding open source.
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Governance Choices Shape Culture
- Choosing a governance and voting system shapes project culture and power dynamics. Python's shift from informal consensus to formal PEP proposals forced hard discussions about voting mechanics and delegation.
Use STAR Voting For Nuanced Choices
- Prefer STAR voting for multi-seat elections to express graded preferences rather than binary approvals. STAR lets voters score candidates then uses automatic runoffs to reflect nuanced community choices.
Defer To Domain Experts
- Delegate domain-specific decisions to expert groups instead of centralizing everything in the steering council. Packaging issues became entrusted to PEP delegates with the community expertise to make callsthat scale.
