[TYPO3-english] what are the reasons to upgrade from PHP5.2 to newer ?

[Jigal van Hemert]

Hi,

On 13/11/2015 04:17, Chai name wrote:
> our customer is worried about upgrading their own system specifications
> as it may effect whatever is  already running on the server
>
> so
>
> - What are the potential risks for them to  upgrade ?    backward
> compatibility  or ..... your opinion......?

Other applications that are running on that server might be affected. If 
you can't upgrade them to newer versions that are compatible with recent 
versions of PHP then you could consider a few options:
- have a sysadmin configure the server that it can different versions of 
PHP in parallel
- use a new server for the new website (and let the other stay on the 
old server)

Security considerations

All the time people discover small (or large) errors in code that have 
implications for security. These need to be repaired, otherwise your 
server could be vulnerable for attacks by unfriendly people.
Old versions of software are simply not maintained anymore and thus 
security issues are not repaired. If you keep using these versions your 
servers will automatically become vulnerable.

Just like Windows XP is not maintained anymore and should not be used, 
PHP 5.2 is also "end of life" for quite a while.

Speed as a bonus

For quite some years the developers of PHP also improve the speed of 
PHP. This means that applications written in PHP become faster with new 
versions of PHP. As a result your web pages will show up faster and the 
server can handle more page visits without adding more hardware.

New software needs new tools

As written elsewhere, as older versions of TYPO3 become unmaintained you 
need to upgrade to newer releases. These newer releases require newer 
versions of the tools they use.

-- 
Jigal van Hemert
TYPO3 CMS Active Contributor

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