[TYPO3-core] Proposal for the upcoming Roadmap and LTS

[Mario Rimann]

Hi

Am 07.11.12 06:32, schrieb Georg Ringer:
>> - If the same user would buy his website now (Q3/2012), his Installation
>> will have an expected lifetime of just about 1.5 years - almostly
>> independed of whether he gets a 4.5.x LTS based TYPO3 setup or a 4.7.x
>> based version (differend of the two EOL dates is 6 months)
> 
> yeah but isn't that always the case in daily life? If you buy now the VW
> Golf v6 you will have a new car for you but there is already the version
> 7 out.

Well, you're comparing bananas to oranges here: If I buy a new car
(independent of it's "version"), it will always have the same n years of
warranty. It doesn't matter on which moment I sign the contract to buy it.

With TYPO3 the "remaining maintenance duration" depends on the moment a
project is done and which version is used for it as outlined in my
previous mail - the customer doesn't always get the same duration of
maintenance with his website.

> yes it can suck but IMO just having the 4.5 even for longer won't be
> great either. Doing support for so many versions is not cool and really
> big deal for regressions: Don't forget: Now there is support for 6.0,
> 4.7, 4.6, 4.5 BUT in one year there will be support for 6.2, 6.1, 4.7,
> 4.5 which makes it even worse for backports.

I know, and I'm absolutely aware of the workload each additional version
brings regarding the maintenance. I'm absolutely against pushing the EOL
for 4.5 LTS any further. It's perfectly fine to end it's lifetime in 2014.

But I'm asking for a transition path to upgrade from one LTS version to
the next LTS version. 6 months overlapping time is too short IMHO and
therefore I think the next LTS should be coming better soon than late.

> Of course you are not alone but on the other side agencies, developers
> and everybody tries to get features/bugfixes much faster into the wild.
> Maybe you even do a continous deployment and you don't need version
> numbers anymore.

Well, if the version identifiers are A, B, C or 4, 6, 7 doesn't matter.
But the branching is important IMHO -> we need a stable branch that is
maintained for a longer time than just 1 or 1.5 years.

Cheers,
Mario