[SURVEY] Discontinuing upgrade support for legacy versions

[franco]

Hi everyone,

This topic is due now as we have multiple legacy versions, namely 15.1, 15.7, 16.1 and 16.7 which can still be upgraded through the mirrors. The mirror storage requirement are roughly 1 GB per version. Obviously, not too many use the old versions in open environments or they build their own so the question is:

How long should older versions be able to do major updates?

Would it be safe to strip support for updates of versions 15.1 and 15.7 when 17.7 comes out?

Who is still running 15.1 or 15.7 and why?


Thanks,
Franco

[fabian]

I would keep around one year as there is no need to do this. Even from the download size it is better to download a new image. The only thing is that the configuration must be importable in the newer version. I would suggest to keep the support for 17.1 (current) and 16.7 (last version). I would even drop updates for 16.1 (reinstall is cheaper from an installation time and download size perspective).
BTW: This is free software. Everyone can install updates for free. Except waiting for an update to be more stable (like omitting the first version of the new major version) there is no reason not to do updates. The reboot does not take long and with redundancy in commercial areas there is no problem with longer blackouts of the network.

[weust]

One year seems long enough for me too.
Anyone running older then that should scratch their head and ask themselves "wtf I am doing?"

[Nnyan]

I think N-1 or N-2 is more than fair for dev work, with maybe security upgrades for up to a year max

[franco]

Security updates for a year for legacy versions is not possible to pull off an open source scope, I'm afraid. Releasing for any version takes a week in total and I'm happy that the time is silently dedicated to keeping the current version going.

Well, then 15.1 and 15.7 will be removed when 17.7 hits. That's good enough for now.


Thank you,
Franco