By mgcarley on

Either I'm not using the correct search terms or the information is just not there, but does anyone have any idea how long the 5.x branch is (probably) going to be around and "supported"?

We are implementing a large site in 5.x (I started it out in 6.2, but it doesn't have updates to all the modules we want, just yet, so I'm switching over to 5.7) but the customer wants to migrate to 6.x - eventually. But they are asking when 5.x will cease to "exist" as the preferred option.

At the moment I suspect 9 months to 1 year - would that be a good guess? Is there somewhere documented that says something like "Drupal 5.x support lifecycle ends on 1.1.2010" or something?

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

rszrama’s picture

rszrama commented

From the thread title, it sounds like you're asking how long Dries' lifecycle will be supported. : )

Anyways, it's generally been the one version prior to the current major version, meaning when D7 is released, D5 drops off the radar. As to when that'll happen, your guess sounds great, but there's no way to put a solid date on it. Releases come when they're ready, no matter how much we want them to come sooner.

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Drupal by Wombats | Current Drupal project: http://www.ubercart.org

vm’s picture

vm commented

quoted from: http://drupal.org/node/65922

4. Only the current stable release series and the previous release series (e.g., 6.x and 5.x) are supported by the Drupal development community at any given time

7. Therefore, people adopting Drupal for their web or CMS project should plan for periodic upgrades of their project to the latest major release (every 12-24 months) in order to benefit from the ongoing active support of one of the finest open source development communities.

Though I have heard through the community grapevine there is some dicussions about extending the life cycle of Drupal 5.x. Nothing concrete though.

Is there somewhere documented that says something like "Drupal 5.x support lifecycle ends on 1.1.2010" or something?

you'll never find anything that specific here.

lyonsden’s picture

lyonsden commented

VeryMisunderstood,

Here we are 6 months later, what have you heard lately about 5.x extending life cycle? If it is going to be around longer and I go with it, can I upgrade to 6.x without harm?

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

Drupal 5's lifetime depends on when Drupal 7 will be released. And Drupal 7 will be released "when it is ready".

With a code freeze around the end of the year, Drupal 7 should be releasd some time in spring (or maybe early summer?), and that will be the end of Drupal 5's lifetime.

Upgrading from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6 depends on your additional modules, at least the important ones, which hold your data. If they have active development and there is a Drupal 6 version (or they are working on one), you won't have a problem upgrading.

vm’s picture

vm commented

to add on to cog.rusty here:

At this point if a module doesn't even have a -dev available for it for Drupal 6.x I wouldn't use it without the skillset to update it on your own. Drupal 6.x has been around quite sometime now and if a module hasn't even begun a port to 6 chances are it isn't very actively supported.

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

Subscribe to the development mailing list if you haven't already. There is a large related discussion spanning last month and this month (drupal as a moving target). Often it looks like people just talk and vent, but I believe that is how some ideas (not all of course) stay hovering for long until they sink-in.