diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
index 10d5ae69f3..1e003be75a 100644
--- a/INSTALL
+++ b/INSTALL
@@ -79,7 +79,9 @@ The two following programs should be available at configuration time:
     as. Otherwise, LyX will not be able to run a number of tests. Note
     that users can run these tests manually with Tools>Reconfigure.
 
-  o Python 2.3 or newer installed to be able to import older LyX files
+  o Python 2.4 or newer must be installed. Python is used for many
+    simple tasks that are executed by external scripts, such as the
+    automatic configuration step and the import of older LyX documents
     with the lyx2lyx script (this script is called automatically when
     opening a file). Python 3.0 or later is not supported.
 
diff --git a/INSTALL.scons b/INSTALL.scons
index 561d23b6f8..0969efa7e4 100644
--- a/INSTALL.scons
+++ b/INSTALL.scons
@@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ Prerequisites:
 --------------
 
 * Python:
-  Python >= 2.6.0 is required to run scons, but Python >= 2.3.4 is used by
-  lyx itself so the newer version is needed. Python is widely
-  available on non-windows systems. Windows users can download and install
-  python from http://www.python.org.
+  Python >= 2.6.0 is required to run scons, while LyX itself requires
+  Python >= 2.4.0 for scripts such as configure.py. Python is widely
+  available on non-windows systems. Windows users can download and
+  install python from http://www.python.org.
 
 * SCons:
   scons >= 1.1.0 is needed. You can either use a full system-wide scons
diff --git a/README b/README
index 645cee217e..4901cad631 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -33,13 +33,9 @@ What do I need to run LyX?
     A decent LaTeX2e installation (e.g. TeX Live for Linux, MikTeX for
     Windows).
 
-    Python 2.3 or later to convert old LyX files and for helper scripts.
-    Note 1: Python 2.3.4 or later is required for exporting LyX files
-    to a pre-unicode format, as previous versions are affected by a bug
-    about the normalization of unicode strings.
-    Note 2: Python 2.4.0 or later is required for the clean_dvi.py script,
-    which, however, is only used on Windows, where at least Python 2.6.0
-    is anyway recommended.
+    Python 2.4 or later to convert old LyX files and for helper scripts.
+    Note 1: Python 2.4 or later is required due to the subprocess module.
+    Note 2: Python 2.6 or later is recommended on Windows.
     Note 3: Python 3.0 or later is not supported.
 
 How does the LyX version scheme work?