[graemep]

I think Python became popular before Go came out.

Do you mean the comic was responsible, or the comic explains why Python is popular? It is definitely the ecosystem. As you said its general purpose. It is used for numerical computing and visualisation, web apps, GUIs, sysadmin. Even a reasonably popular DVCS is written in Python.

[aeonik]

I wrote: “Right as Python was rocketing in popularity, Go came out.”

I wasn’t talking chronology of first release, just describing the overlap in hype cycles back then.

The comic was released in 2007, and started heading to the moon. Go came out around 2009, and almost instantly got traction.

[graemep]

I do not mean to disagree with just, just wanted to clarify some wording and add to the "general purpose aspect of Python.