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

[Jigal van Hemert]

Hi,

On 8-11-2012 17:20, Mario Rimann wrote:
> Hi
>
> Am 08.11.12 15:20, schrieb Jigal van Hemert:
>>> 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.
>>
>> It's you (or your sales people) who sells the site to your customer. You
>> can either do the maintenance yourself or sell a different duration of
>> free upgrades to each customer.
>
> Well, I cannot proove it right now, but I remember it differntly: I
> remember a typo3.org that exactly advertised that fact of having a long
> maintenance period.
>
> We did not sell anything additional to our customers - just mentioned
> that TYPO3 will deliver 3+ years maintenance on the LTS version (as
> stated on the website). So I don't think we're the ones that sold the
> wrong thing or promised too much to happen.

The support period is/was indeed mentioned on the typo3.org site. You 
brought up the issue that the support period is different depending on 
when the site is delivered to your customer. I merely wanted to tell you 
that you could have sold a different support period. If you want to give 
each customer 5 years of free updates ("free" as in included in the 
contract) then you don't have to do anything yourself until the 
beginning of 2014 and after that you can backport bugfixes from later 
versions.
You are not necessarily depending on what the community offers you for 
your customers.

> Then you still get me wrong. I'm just arguing that there is a *need*
> from the target audience - and I feel you don't want to hear that and
> always respond with "there's no (financial|human) resource to fullfil
> this need".

I know that there is a "need", more a desire, for having LTS versions by 
several agencies (and others who offer TYPO3 services). Several people 
explained that this requires more resources and that is where things end 
so far.
Other agencies (etc.) do not have such "need"; they use the latest 
stable branch and are able to sell upgrades in some way to their customers.

IMO it's now up to those who need this LTS to find a way to facilitate this.

> Yes, more power will help - be it financial or human. But on the other
> hand just throwing manpower or money onto this issue without having a
> plan where and how to collaborate efficiently will waste too much of
> those already missing resources IMHO. I hope you understand, why I want
> to think and discuss first and then see how we can push things further
> together.

In the case of maintaining older branches it's just a matter of doing 
it. There are already scripts available which list all the issues that 
need backporting.
With development things don't happen quicker if you throw more people 
into the equation. If you have a few people dedicated to backporting 
changes that would help with more than 90% of the work involved.

-- 
Jigal van Hemert
TYPO3 Core Team member

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