[TYPO3-core] Official information about the upcoming LTS version

Michael Stucki michael.stucki at typo3.org
Wed Sep 19 22:28:19 CEST 2012


Hi!

Am 19.09.2012 17:03, schrieb Patrick Broens:
> On 19-9-12 16:43 , Oliver Hader wrote:
>> b) backporting changes from 4.7 to 4.5 has become difficult and if we
>> think about 6.0 it's just most work that needs to be done (namespaces,
>> bootstrapping, etc.) - it already happened in the past the obviously
>> easy patches have been backported and created regressions in the LTS version
> 
> I'm against backporting new features. Too much hassle and it can make a
> LTS version unstable (like the mentioned regressions), which is not the
> goal of an LTS version.

I don't think Olly was thinking of new features. The regressions have
already come with simple bugfixes. Things like this can happen, and
avoiding such problems will certainly become harder by time.

>> So my suggestion for the next LTS are:
>>
>> a) keep the overlapping short (6 months), which would result in 6.2 LTS
>> b) keep the regular bugfix maintenance shorter, e.g. 12-18 months
>> instead of currently 36 months
>> c) keep the security maintenance extended - like currently with 36 months
>>
>> Thus, security releases (which we do not and cannot schedule in advance)
>> don't force anybody to upgrade.
> 
> Agree on the above.

Let's agree about the need for another LTS first, and discuss the
maintenance periods later.

>>> So instead of trying to answer the questions of the clients now, we
>>> should first ask if there is a demand for another LTS version. Many
>>> agencies know their clients very well (I hope so), and a quick survey at
>>> the bigger agencies would give us an answer soon.

IMHO the answer is already clear and asking the community will only
delay the whole process. But feel free to ask around... :-)

>> Yepp, I'd be fine with that. But in the end there are a lot of desires -
>> actually some group needs to do the work. If I look to the current
>> situation with the changes that need to be backported to 4.5 LTS, I'd
>> say that we should only create promises that can be kept.
>>
>> Of course in terms of marketing big LTS promises sound great, but we
>> just need to be honest - to the community and to ourselves.
> 
> Desires and promises, we need to make sure that everybody in the
> community and beyond are aware that backporting cannot be done in
> certain cases and especially not for new features. I totally agree that
> we need to be honest to the community and to ourselves.

I don't agree with you both. If we lack resources for maintaining LTS
versions, then the T3A budget is wrongly adjusted. IMHO that would
clearly be one main reason for getting payments from the Association.

Talking about this, it's a pity that the work for LTS maintenance is not
covered in the new budget application (is it?). It would have let the
members tell us if they want another LTS or not.
But again, I think the answer to that is already clear anyway...

- michael


More information about the TYPO3-team-core mailing list