Change to FreeBSD release scheduling and support period
Dear FreeBSD Community,
We are making two changes related to the release engineering process:
1. FreeBSD stable branch support durations, starting with FreeBSD 15.x, are being reduced from 5 years to 4 years after the .0 release.
2. A predictable schedule of releases is being established, with a new minor release from one of the supported stable branches occurring most quarters.
More background:
Since assuming the role of Release Engineering Lead in November 2023, I have been reviewing the release process and schedule. I reached a number of conclusions:
1. With more and better communication between the release engineering team and FreeBSD developers, we can streamline the release process, to typically have 3 BETAs and 1 Release Candidate, rather than 3-4 BETAs and 3-6 Release Candidates.
2. Having more frequent releases will further assist the release process, since there will be less pressure to get "one last feature" added if the next minor release is 6 months away rather than a year or more away.
3. While we can't guarantee when a release will happen -- we will always hold the release for critical bugs -- we can fix when the release cycle *starts*, and this is enough to provide estimates useful for long-term planning.
4. The release engineering team has the capacity to manage a release every 3 months, with the exception of .0 releases which take a bit longer.
5. Having a .0 release every 2 years works well from a development perspective (considering things like new features which can't be MFCed) but the security and ports teams can't practically manage more than 2 stable branches at once; so a 4 year support duration is more feasible than a 5 year support duration.
Based on this, the FreeBSD core team has approved reducing the stable branch support duration from 5 years to 4 years starting with FreeBSD 15 (the support duration for individual point releases will remain until "next point release + 3 months", although that will now be more predictable) and I have put together a schedule for upcoming releases:
Release EoL 13.3: Mar 2024 Dec 2024 14.1: Jun 2024 Mar 2025 13.4: Sep 2024 Jun 2025 14.2: Dec 2024 Sep 2025 13.5: Mar 2025 Apr 2026* 14.3: Jun 2025 Jun 2026 15.0: Dec 2025 Sep 2026 14.4: Mar 2026 Dec 2026 15.1: Jun 2026 Mar 2027 14.5: Sep 2026 Jun 2027 15.2: Dec 2026 Sep 2027 14.6: Mar 2027 Nov 2028* 15.3: Jun 2027 Jun 2028 16.0: Dec 2027 Sep 2028 15.4: Mar 2028 Dec 2028 16.1: Jun 2028 Mar 2029 15.5: Sep 2028 Jun 2029 16.2: Dec 2028 Sep 2029 15.6: Mar 2029 Dec 2029 16.3: Jun 2029 Jun 2030 17.0: Dec 2029 Sep 2030 * 13.5 and 14.6 are supported until 5 years after 13.0 and 14.0 respectively.
I have referred to this as a "quarterly" schedule, not just because there is a new release most quarters, but also because for minor releases, the entire release process happens within that quarter: The code slush starts in the middle of the first month of the quarter; the release branch is created and BETA builds happen at the start of the second month; and the release happens early in the third month of the quarter.
Consequentially:
* New features and driver updates should land by the middle of January / April / July / October in order to be included in the relevant release.
* We will need people to test BETAs in the months of February / May / August / November.
* Even if the schedule slips slightly, releases should be out by the end of March / June / September / December.
We hope this more predictable schedule makes it easier for FreeBSD users to plan and manage their upgrade cycles, while also balancing the availability of new features in releases and the ability of the project to maintain the set of supported releases.
Sincerely, - -- Colin Percival FreeBSD Release Engineering Lead & EC2 platform maintainer Founder, Tarsnap | www.tarsnap.com | Online backups for the truly paranoid
Update
Outline here:
-
FreeBSD Announces Changes to Release Schedule And Support Period
Starting with FreeBSD 15.x, the support duration for stable branches will be reduced from 5 years to 4 years. This change will allow the FreeBSD team to focus on supporting a smaller number of branches, making it easier for their security and ports teams to manage and maintain.