[ris]

> various other projects dealing with dynamic languages

Not all dynamic languages are born the same.

> I'm pretty sure Python can be a lot faster

You might like you join the PyPy team then and find out.

[protomyth]

You missed the but the legacy code is going to be a big, big problem. part. If, as other posters point out, those C extensions are not designed to work without the the GIL, then its going to be a 2->3 situation.

Frankly, I honor the Python folks and all their achievements, but I really dislike the language. I mostly am researching another paradigm.