Python Practice: Time is up

Question

Hello,

can someone please explain me some code fragment.
In python for beginners we learn that the “while loop” is without “=“
In the practice “time is up” we should create a countdown.
Code looks like this:

# take the number as input
number = int(input())

#use a while loop for the countdown
while number>= 0:
print(number)
number = number -1

Why is in the line with the while function an “=“ sign because we learned the loop whiteout it but the code doesn’t work without it.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

if you dont want the equal sign you could do

while number > -1

Answer 2

while number>=0 stops at 0

while number >0 stops at 1

number = number-1 can be rewritten as:
number -= 1

Answer 3

I now i understand why and how to go around the equal sign, i was just confused because it wasnt explained like this in the tutorial before.
Thank you so much both of you