@Marco: He said Python isn't just a scripting language for hackers/sysadmins, so no flamewars there. :)

@Alcides: The GUI problem with Python is nothing new, I was even complaing about this back at the start of 2005 (http://blog.carlos-rodrigues.com/2005/02/qtwindows-40-com-dual-licensing.html). Nothing has been done to change this though, and that really hurts Python for client applications.

Like you say, TkInter really is ugly as sin, ad the API isn't much better: it's as un-pythonic as it gets... But wxPython has problems too.

For me, the most elegant toolkit API-wise is pyGTK, but it looks ugly and out of place on Windows (GTK's fault). PyQT is the next best thing, looks good on every platform and is easy to install. The only thing that, I think, prevents it from being the blessed toolkit for Python distributions is the license. You can use it on all platforms for free, but your app must be GPL. The Python folks just can't impose that on their users.

"I believe each python distribution should include the native wrapper for each target."

This approach has its share of problems... Wrapping native toolkits almost always ends with a toolkit that looks alien to all of them (see SWT, or the Swing attempts to look native). It isn't just a matter of looks, it's the differences in design philosophy behind toolkits from different platforms.