Not at all. Python 3.7 and older cannot be even built on current Linux + GCC. Python has few important system dependencies s.a. libffi and libssl that since c

Not at all. Python 3.7 and older cannot be even built on current Linux + GCC. Python has few important system dependencies s.a. libffi and libssl that since changed major versions and aren't compatible with the interfaces used by Python 3.7 (what happens in Python 2.7 world -- heaven only knows). Python has no standard. There's no implementation of Python that say "we support versions X, Y and Z" of Python. It just keeps going and as the platform changes, it changes too. Old versions lose support relatively quickly. Three or four years if memory serves. If you go beyond that horizon, things start to fall apart, the further you go, the more likely it just be too hard to fix. Compare this to C, where compilers typically support all C standards up to something moderately recent. Your C89 code would compile and work today to the extent guaranteed by the standard. Actual programs will have experienced bitrot of course. Same reason: system interface changes, but, unlike in Python, those aren't part of the language.