title: What does Python's GIL have to do with the garbage collector?
body: <p>I just saw <a href="http://code.google.com/p/unladen-swallow/wiki/ProjectPlan#Global_Interpreter_Lock" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this section of Unladen Swallow's documentation</a> come up on Hacker News.  Basically, it's the Google engineers saying that they're not optimistic about removing the GIL.  However, it seems as though there is discussion about the garbage collector interspersed with this talk about the GIL.  Could someone explain the relation to me?</p>