diff --git a/README b/README
index c0c2fe0..310a7f0 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ What
 ----
 
 "paramiko" is a combination of the esperanto words for "paranoid" and
-"friend".  it's a module for python 2.2+ that implements the SSH2 protocol
+"friend".  it's a module for python 2.5+ that implements the SSH2 protocol
 for secure (encrypted and authenticated) connections to remote machines.
 unlike SSL (aka TLS), SSH2 protocol does not require hierarchical
 certificates signed by a powerful central authority. you may know SSH2 as
@@ -39,8 +39,7 @@ that should have come with this archive.
 Requirements
 ------------
 
-  - python 2.3 or better <http://www.python.org/>
-    (python 2.2 is also supported, but not recommended)
+  - python 2.5 or better <http://www.python.org/>
   - pycrypto 2.1 or better <https://www.dlitz.net/software/pycrypto/>
 
 If you have setuptools, you can build and install paramiko and all its
@@ -58,19 +57,6 @@ should also work on Windows, though i don't test it as frequently there.
 if you run into Windows problems, send me a patch: portability is important
 to me.
 
-python 2.2 may work, thanks to some patches from Roger Binns. things to
-watch out for:
-
-    * sockets in 2.2 don't support timeouts, so the 'select' module is
-      imported to do polling.  
-    * logging is mostly stubbed out. it works just enough to let paramiko
-      create log files for debugging, if you want them. to get real logging,
-      you can backport python 2.3's logging package. Roger has done that
-      already:
-      http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=75211&package_id=113804
-
-you really should upgrade to python 2.3. laziness is no excuse! :)
-
 some python distributions don't include the utf-8 string encodings, for
 reasons of space (misdirected as that is). if your distribution is
 missing encodings, you'll see an error like this::
diff --git a/paramiko/__init__.py b/paramiko/__init__.py
index 7d7dcbf..e2b359f 100644
--- a/paramiko/__init__.py
+++ b/paramiko/__init__.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 
 """
 I{Paramiko} (a combination of the esperanto words for "paranoid" and "friend")
-is a module for python 2.3 or greater that implements the SSH2 protocol for
+is a module for python 2.5 or greater that implements the SSH2 protocol for
 secure (encrypted and authenticated) connections to remote machines.  Unlike
 SSL (aka TLS), the SSH2 protocol does not require hierarchical certificates
 signed by a powerful central authority.  You may know SSH2 as the protocol that
@@ -50,8 +50,8 @@ Website: U{https://github.com/paramiko/paramiko/}
 
 import sys
 
-if sys.version_info < (2, 2):
-    raise RuntimeError('You need python 2.2 for this module.')
+if sys.version_info < (2, 5):
+    raise RuntimeError('You need python 2.5+ for this module.')
 
 
 __author__ = "Jeff Forcier <jeff@bitprophet.org>"