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Pylint

A Python linter with many deep checks that people run and then forget. Critics say it is old, slow on some checks, and that Ruff has overtaken it in adoption.

Summarized from 9 comments.

A Python linter with many deep checks that people run and then forget. Critics say it is old, slow on some checks, and that Ruff has overtaken it in adoption.

recommend
5
criticize
4
months recommended
3 of 13

Long-term owners

Pylint is 25 years old. You'd hope they do some things better.

Mar 2026 · comment

What hackers pick instead

Every quote

The 9 most detailed of 9 comments. Each links to the original.

  1. It's still impressive but it looks like a pathological case in a test directory.

    Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “Fable Converted Pylint to Rust”

  2. Pylint has some advantages, sure, but Ruffs adoption speaks for itself.

    Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “Astral to Join OpenAI”

  3. These tools are some of the most set it and forget it things around.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Ruff v0.16.0 – Significant new updates – 413 default rules up from 59”

  4. Pylint is 25 years old. You'd hope they do some things better.

    Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “Astral to Join OpenAI”

  5. pylint has more deep checks

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Fable Converted Pylint to Rust”

  6. the code was not better - on the contrary it had plenty of hacks to make pylint happy at the cost of illegible code.

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Ruff v0.16.0 – Significant new updates – 413 default rules up from 59”

  7. pylint profiling/ --enable=duplicate-code doesn't seem to exit in a reasonable time

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “Fable Converted Pylint to Rust”

  8. much faster that what we used before

    Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “Ask HN: What non-LLM tools have meaningfully improved your dev productivity?”

  9. None of these tools catch that.

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Ruff v0.16.0 – Significant new updates – 413 default rules up from 59”

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