Django requires Python, specifically any version of Python from 2.3 through 2.6. No other Python libraries are required for basic Django usage.
For a development environment – if you just want to experiment with Django – you don’t need to have a separate Web server installed; Django comes with its own lightweight development server. For a production environment, Django follows the WSGI spec, which means it can run on a variety of server platforms. See Deploying Django for some popular alternatives. Also, the server arrangements wiki page contains details for several deployment strategies.
If you want to use Django with a database, which is probably the case, you’ll also need a database engine. PostgreSQL is recommended, because we’re PostgreSQL fans, and MySQL, SQLite 3, and Oracle are also supported.
Not in the core framework. Currently, Django itself officially supports any version of Python from 2.3 through 2.6, inclusive. However, some add-on components may require a more recent Python version; the django.contrib.gis component, for example, requires at least Python 2.4, and third-party applications for use with Django are, of course, free to set their own version requirements.
Please note, however, that over the next year or two Django will begin dropping support for older Python versions as part of a migration which will end with Django running on Python 3.0 (see next question for details). So if you’re just starting out with Python, it’s recommended that you use the latest 2.x release (currently, Python 2.6). This will let you take advantage of the numerous improvements and optimizations to the Python language since version 2.3, and will help ease the process of dropping support for older Python versions on the road to Python 3.0.
Not at the moment. Python 3.0 introduced a number of backwards-incompatible changes to the Python language, and although these changes are generally a good thing for Python’s future, it will be a while before most Python software catches up and is able to run on Python 3.0. For larger Python-based software like Django, the transition is expected to take at least a year or two (since it involves dropping support for older Python releases and so must be done gradually).
In the meantime, Python 2.x releases will be supported and provided with bug fixes and security updates by the Python development team, so continuing to use a Python 2.x release during the transition should not present any risk.
The Django developers improve Django every day and are pretty good about not checking in broken code. We use the development code (from the Subversion repository) directly on our servers, so we consider it stable. With that in mind, we recommend that you use the latest development code, because it generally contains more features and fewer bugs than the “official” releases.
Sep 20, 2009