Re: Predicted lifespan of different PostgreSQL branches

On Jan 27, 2007, at 3:41 AM, Dave Page wrote:
>> Does the PostgreSQL project have any similar policy about EoLs?
>> Even just
>> a simple statement like, "it is our goal to support major branches
>> for 2
>> years after release" or some such?
>
> I've been considering only maintaining the current and previous 2
> versions in pgInstaller (the Windows binary distro). But that's a
> *lot*
> harder to maintain than just PostgreSQL because of all the bundled
> stuff. In other words, when 8.3 is out, the 8.0 series gets dropped.
>
> What do people think about that? Does anyone think it would be an
> unreasonable policy?

FWIW, I looked in the archives at the last time we discussed this a
while ago; the popular proposal seemed to be that at a *minimum* we'd
support a version for 2 years *after* it was replaced. IE: 8.0
support could end 2 years after 8.1 came out (which would be
somewhere around this Dec., IIRC).

But it's also important to point out that a number of community
members are on the hook to support old versions due to their day
jobs; with Tom/Red Hat/7.3 (or is it 7.4?) probably being the best
example. IIRC Sun's support policy is 5 years, so presumably someone
will have to maintain whatever version they initially shipped with
(8.1?) for quite some time as well.
--
Jim Nasby                                            jim@nasby.net
EnterpriseDB      http://enterprisedb.com      512.569.9461 (cell)