Edit: I'm sorry; this top comment was a mess. I've revised it for clarity below.

Having only just recently improved uv's tolerance for Python 3.6 in #6996 merged @charliermarsh 2024-09-04, I'm dismayed to have the rug pulled out by #7266 merged @zanieb 2024-09-11.

As I've said before: while I appreciate the Python team no longer support Python 3.6, RedHat-style Linux distributions will support Python 3.6 in their/usr/libexec/platform-python until releasever 8 expires in 2029.

It strikes me as off brand for Astral to provide Python programmers with excellent tooling, except for those Python programmers, over there. (They're an "edge case", if you know what I mean. Cough.) If they'd personally earned a disregard bordering on spite, maybe, but not if they're helping? #6996 for example fixes the problem underlying #3371, which prompted this defensive work in get_operating_system_and_architecture.

I'm not asking for uv to provide a managed Python 3.6, but would appreciate a fix starting with a unit test ensuring --python=3.6 works if the following are all true:

• --python-preference isn't only-managed
• python3.6 is on the PATH
• SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH < 1877558400