[Leaplist] Fedora End-of-Life -- WAS: fedora 10

[Bryan J Smith]

On Fri, 2008-11-28 at 00:05 +0000, ralnw5 at bellsouth.net wrote: 
> I just installed Fedora Core 9 in a virtual machine on my Macbook Pro
> a couple weeks ago. How long will 9 be supported for updates?

The official lifecycle is here:  
  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/LifeCycle  

E.g., the last release EOL was Fedora 7 back in June:  
  http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-April/msg00013.html  

The EOL for Fedora 8 should be just before the end of 2008.

NOTE:  The EOL date for Fedora releases were extended just a few years
ago.  It used to only be F(n) would be end-of-life (EOL) when F(n+2)
Test 2 hit.  Now F(n) is EOL when F(n+2)+1m.  I.e., instead of being
supported for 10-13 months, it's more like 12-15 months now.

BTW, just because something if EOL does not mean updates are not created
sometimes.  I.e., even if a release is EOL, if a security exploit is
serious, I've seen older kernel and other core updates released a few
months after EOL (although typically not much later than a few months).
Red Hat's extremely long standing policy, which Fedora carries on, is
more of an "official" stance.  Although the Fedora Project does not
continue the more "extreme" update durations of Red Hat Linux (RHL)
prior, which always and only had a "1 year" official update stance (when
2-3 years were still commonly done), you're typically good for a year
before you need to worry about upgrading.

If you need longer support periods than the Fedora Project provides,
then consider using CentOS instead or, another consideration that I
always like to mention, paying for a Red Hat JBoss Developer Studio
subscription ($99/year) which gives you all of Red Hat's products (RHEL
platform, JBoss middleware, etc.) -- ignore the other "Developer
Subscriptions" which have unlimited telephone support and a Service
Level Agreement (SLA = required response time):  
  https://www.redhat.com/apps/store/developers/  

I assume in your case you're just looking for updates, so CentOS is
another option to consider.  Don't bother with Oracle, although I'm
being biased, but that's why I mention the Red Hat JBoss Developer
Studio subscription (since Oracle charges the same, or more, for less).


-- 
Bryan J  Smith                Professional, Technical Annoyance
Mugshot Homepage:  http://mugshot.org/person?who=58wDcGKx6NcZAb
---------------------------------------------------------------
           Fission Power:  An Inconvenient Solution            


-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.