This probably only applies to Windows. The redundant 'b' modes still work on Linux.

These worked on Windows in 2.6.4:

open('test', 'rbb')
open('test', 'wbb')
open('test', 'abb')

and possibly others.

In 2.7a2, they throw ValueErrors like this:

>>> open('test', 'wbb')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: Invalid mode ('wbb')

It would be nice if the old behavior were preserved for backwards compatibility. Some programs append a 'b' indiscriminately.

With 2.7 I can reproduce the issue on Windows 7 (i.e. I get a ValueError).
However I'm not sure how common is to add a 'b' indiscriminately:
1) most of the times the modes are written as strings, and not generated automatically;
2) even if generated, checking if there's a 'b' is as easy as doing "if 'b' not in mode: mode = mode + 'b'".

For consistency both Windows and Linux should have the same behavior, and if the extra 'b' is not so common I think it's better if both raise an error.