Re: EOL for 8.2 (was Re: Formatting Curmudgeons WAS: MMAP Buffers)

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 06:04:09PM +0100, Dave Page wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 5:59 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
> > [ man, this thread has totally outlived its title, could we change that?
> > ?I'll start with this subtopic ]
> >
> > Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> >> In fact, I've been wondering if we shouldn't consider extending the
> >> support window for 8.2 past the currently-planned December 2011.
> >> There seem to be quite a lot of people running that release precisely
> >> because the casting changes in 8.3 were so painful, and I think the
> >> incremental effort on our part to extend support for another year
> >> would be reasonably small. ?I guess the brunt of the work would
> >> actually fall on the packagers. ?It looks like we've done 5 point
> >> releases of 8.2.x in the last year, so presumably if we did decide to
> >> extend the EOL date by a year or so that's about how much incremental
> >> effort would be needed.
> >
> > I agree that the incremental effort would not be so large, but what
> > makes you think that the situation will change given another year?
> > My expectation is that'd just mean people will do nothing about
> > migrating for a year longer.
> >
> > More generally: it took a lot of argument to establish the current EOL
> > policy, and bending it the first time anyone feels any actual pain
> > will pretty much destroy the whole concept.
> 
> It would also make at least one packager very unhappy as the 8.2
> Windows build is by far the hardest and most time consuming to do and
> I happen to know he's been counting the days until it goes.
> 
> More generally, keeping it for longer means we might end up supporting
> 6 major releases at once. That may not be so much work on a day to day
> basis, but it adds up to a lot at release times, which was one of the
> reasons why we agreed on the 5 year support window.
> 
> -- 
> Dave Page
> Blog: http://pgsnake.blogspot.com
> Twitter: @pgsnake
> 
> EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com
> The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company
> 

+1 for cutting the cord on 8.2. People using it still will need
to use the last release available, upgrade, or consult to have
a back-port/build made. 

Regards,
Ken