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Python 2.6 was 2% of pip downloads and apparently this was the rationale for dropping its support: https://github.com/pypa/pip/pull/4343 . This led to some Python libraries to also drop 2.6, as shown by library commits referencing this pull request.

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RHEL/CentOS 6 stock python is 2.6, IIRC.

RHEL/CentOS has a reputation of keeping up zombie software that is long unsupported by upstream. It's their model and their problem, rest of community shouldn't IMHO care. Hardly any projects have resources to keep compatibility with their ten-years-old releases and backport every fix.

I doubt anybody running it is interested in upgrading their pip.

You would be surprised at the requests I get from people running CentOS 6.

Is there any reason those people can't leave their system python to the system, and otherwise bring their own?

They don’t know how.

But anaconda python will work nicely on centos 6 I suspect.

Quite nice. And likely faster and more secure. Do an independent check for yourself. Look at the compile flags. Along with what’s statically linked, vs what conda manages as dynamically linked. Also don’t miss what all the pip-installed wheels are statically linking.

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