id,node_id,number,title,user,state,locked,assignee,milestone,comments,created_at,updated_at,closed_at,author_association,active_lock_reason,draft,pull_request,body,reactions,performed_via_github_app,state_reason,repo,type
1086346755,PR_kwDOAMm_X84wKOjC,6096,Replace distutils.version with packaging.version,10194086,closed,0,,,9,2021-12-22T00:51:21Z,2023-01-20T21:00:42Z,2021-12-24T14:50:48Z,MEMBER,,0,pydata/xarray/pulls/6096,"<!-- Feel free to remove check-list items aren't relevant to your change -->

- [x] Closes #6092
- [x] Passes `pre-commit run --all-files`
- [x] User visible changes (including notable bug fixes) are documented in `whats-new.rst`

One change is that it is no longer possible to compare to a string, i.e. `version.parse(xr.__version__) < ""0.20.0""` errors.

As mentioned in #6092 there are 3 options - if there is a preference I am happy to update this PR.

```python
from distutils.version import LooseVersion
from packaging import version

LooseVersion(xr.__version__)
version.parse(xr.__version__)
version.Version(xr.__version__)

# currently:
if LooseVersion(mod.__version__) < LooseVersion(minversion):
    pass

# options:
if version.parse(mod.__version__) < version.parse(minversion):
    pass

if version.Version(mod.__version__) < version.Version(minversion):
    pass

if Version(mod.__version__) < Version(minversion):
    pass
```
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