July 11th, 2024

Change to FreeBSD release scheduling and support period

FreeBSD is shortening support for stable branches to 4 years from FreeBSD 15.x onwards. A new quarterly release schedule aims to improve predictability, encourage more frequent releases, and enhance long-term planning. These changes, approved by the FreeBSD core team, will involve feature submissions by set deadlines and beta testing in designated months, led by Colin Percival to streamline development and support processes.

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Change to FreeBSD release scheduling and support period

FreeBSD is implementing changes to its release scheduling and support period. Starting with FreeBSD 15.x, the support duration for stable branches will be reduced from 5 to 4 years after the initial release. A more predictable release schedule is being established, with minor releases from supported stable branches expected quarterly. These adjustments aim to streamline the release process, encourage more frequent releases to ease pressure on feature inclusion, and provide better estimates for long-term planning. The FreeBSD core team has approved these changes, with a detailed schedule of upcoming releases provided. The new quarterly schedule will require feature submissions by specific deadlines and beta testing in designated months. The goal is to offer users a more predictable upgrade cycle while balancing new feature availability and maintaining supported releases effectively. These modifications are part of efforts led by Colin Percival, the FreeBSD Release Engineering Lead, to enhance the project's development and support processes.

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By @cowsandmilk - 4 months
December releases always make me somewhat nervous. It is not fun if delivery slips into the second half of the month.
By @jmclnx - 4 months
>the FreeBSD core team has approved reducing the stable branch support duration from 5 years to 4 years starting with FreeBSD 15

Interesting, that is the exact opposite of what many big Linux Distros seem to be heading for. Companies would rather have a 100 year support cycles and never do upgrades at all. SUSE (I think) just announced a 12 year support schedule.

I wonder how that will work out for FreeBSD. It seems like a good idea, but I think it could hurt their commercial customers.

At the company I worked at, EOL anything on Dec will cause them to avoid it at all costs. IMHO, EOL Dates should be in the first month of the quarter, not the last month of a quarter.

By @ggm - 4 months
I think I'd be interested in seeing stats on how many people wind up living on EoL releases, because I know I have.

And, I know its higher risk for CVE exposure.

Sometimes "do a minor number upgrade, to fix this" is the price you have to pay.

By @hyperbrainer - 4 months
> 3-4 BETAs

Irrelevant, but why is "BETAs" capitalised?