I've just noticed that within the past couple of weeks Umbraco 6.2.4 was moved from "Current" to "Historical" on the download page. What is the current status of version 6? I've reported a handful of bugs in 6.2.x and as you might expect I'm a little concerned that they may not be fixed at this point.
The most recent posts on the blog have been around 7.2; Umbraco 6 hasn't been mentioned at all since the 6.2.4 announcement last month. I realise that a number of people are now using 7, but it's worrying when 6.2 gets dropped down to "historical" with no fanfare, only five weeks after release.
What are the intentions around future support for Umbraco 6?
Depending on the type of bugs I don't expect any more releases on v6 except critical issues are found. I think HQ all along has been very clear about v7 is the future and that v6 over time would be phased out since v7 is the future.
At some point the HQ needs to make a decision and draw a line in the sand and stop improving v6 and I think it makes sense to do it now. But I also think it would have been nice with a clear notice stating at what time they expected to stop maintaining v6.
So I don't think we'll see more releases of v6. But since nothing has been communicated officially from the HQ about the retirement for v6 (not that I've seen at least) this is only guessing from my behalf.
I'm not too familiar with the guidelines for the different types of support that you can buy but I would think that v6 is included but I'm not sure though. Might be an idea to contact the HQ here http://umbraco.com/contact/send-us-an-email about this.
Thanks for that. Had a busy weekend here so it might be a while before I get time to read that discussion thread, so just acknowledging that I've seen your replies :)
OK, I've now read through all that. It's good to hear that 6 is still supported with a support contract, although none of the issues that we've run into have been huge enough to justify the expense (with the possible exception of the inability to reset passwords), especially given that I had to "fight" to get things fixed in the past when we did have a contract.
I suppose the most disconcerting thing is that bug reports appear to be ignored. The 6.2.4 download page says that "We're happy to help" with any issues and to "report them in the issue tracker" yet more than half of my reported issues are still sitting on "Submitted/Unassigned" after several weeks. Admittedly I don't know the internal processes around Umbraco, but should they move to "Open" once the problem has been confirmed? With them still on "Submitted" it gives the impression that they're not even being looked at... but I may be mistaken.
I can imagine the frustration indeed but depending on the impact of the bugs and how easy/hard they are to fix it might be worth considering if it's something that could be fixed as a part of your own project and then be contributed to the core as a pull request? I know that we did that a few times when I was with my former employee and I know that other companies do it as well.
It's a nice way to give back to the project and the community around it - However I also know that it requires that the economy in the project is freeing up the time to make it a possibilty.
As long as you're not on a support contract I guess you just have to keep in mind that afterall you get a very good foundation/framework for free, which you're free to fork and make your own version of if you want to customize something for a specific case.
But I understand that it's frustrating if you have been on a support contract and got the feeling that it was hard to get help/get things fixed. And I'm sure the HQ guys are equally frustrated if the did not manage to help you out. I know that there is a lot going on in the HQ and it's growing so hopefully some more ressources can be dedicated to helping out those on a support contract.
I have only had positive experiences myself when I have been in touch with the guys using the support system - I know it does not fix your issues and situation though. But maybe you had the contract at a "bad" time where HQ was even shorter on ressources? Not that it should be an excuse though.
Judging from the comments in the post made on the Google group it seems that when 7.2 is out the guys will relax a bit not trying to fit in so many new big features for the next releases and then be able to pay some more attention to the issue tracker afterwards making sure the releases are nice and stable.
Thanks for that; it sounds like the support system has improved since a couple of years ago so that's a good sign.
I do have workarounds for my issues, but whether I could code fixes is a whole other story; I barely even know what a pull request is (aside from "some Git thing")!
It seems that the best solution would be to move to v7, but that involves getting our glacially slow IT department involved. Maybe in 2016...
Umbraco 6 Status?
I've just noticed that within the past couple of weeks Umbraco 6.2.4 was moved from "Current" to "Historical" on the download page. What is the current status of version 6? I've reported a handful of bugs in 6.2.x and as you might expect I'm a little concerned that they may not be fixed at this point.
The most recent posts on the blog have been around 7.2; Umbraco 6 hasn't been mentioned at all since the 6.2.4 announcement last month. I realise that a number of people are now using 7, but it's worrying when 6.2 gets dropped down to "historical" with no fanfare, only five weeks after release.
What are the intentions around future support for Umbraco 6?
Thanks,
Chris
Hi Chris
Depending on the type of bugs I don't expect any more releases on v6 except critical issues are found. I think HQ all along has been very clear about v7 is the future and that v6 over time would be phased out since v7 is the future.
At some point the HQ needs to make a decision and draw a line in the sand and stop improving v6 and I think it makes sense to do it now. But I also think it would have been nice with a clear notice stating at what time they expected to stop maintaining v6.
So I don't think we'll see more releases of v6. But since nothing has been communicated officially from the HQ about the retirement for v6 (not that I've seen at least) this is only guessing from my behalf.
I'm not too familiar with the guidelines for the different types of support that you can buy but I would think that v6 is included but I'm not sure though. Might be an idea to contact the HQ here http://umbraco.com/contact/send-us-an-email about this.
/Jan
Not sure how that happened, it's back at "Current". Yes, support contracts cover 4.10+, v6 and v7.
Also have a look at this discussion where Niels mentions v6.
Thanks for that. Had a busy weekend here so it might be a while before I get time to read that discussion thread, so just acknowledging that I've seen your replies :)
OK, I've now read through all that. It's good to hear that 6 is still supported with a support contract, although none of the issues that we've run into have been huge enough to justify the expense (with the possible exception of the inability to reset passwords), especially given that I had to "fight" to get things fixed in the past when we did have a contract.
I suppose the most disconcerting thing is that bug reports appear to be ignored. The 6.2.4 download page says that "We're happy to help" with any issues and to "report them in the issue tracker" yet more than half of my reported issues are still sitting on "Submitted/Unassigned" after several weeks. Admittedly I don't know the internal processes around Umbraco, but should they move to "Open" once the problem has been confirmed? With them still on "Submitted" it gives the impression that they're not even being looked at... but I may be mistaken.
Thanks for the replies so far :)
Hi Chris
I can imagine the frustration indeed but depending on the impact of the bugs and how easy/hard they are to fix it might be worth considering if it's something that could be fixed as a part of your own project and then be contributed to the core as a pull request? I know that we did that a few times when I was with my former employee and I know that other companies do it as well.
It's a nice way to give back to the project and the community around it - However I also know that it requires that the economy in the project is freeing up the time to make it a possibilty.
As long as you're not on a support contract I guess you just have to keep in mind that afterall you get a very good foundation/framework for free, which you're free to fork and make your own version of if you want to customize something for a specific case.
But I understand that it's frustrating if you have been on a support contract and got the feeling that it was hard to get help/get things fixed. And I'm sure the HQ guys are equally frustrated if the did not manage to help you out. I know that there is a lot going on in the HQ and it's growing so hopefully some more ressources can be dedicated to helping out those on a support contract.
I have only had positive experiences myself when I have been in touch with the guys using the support system - I know it does not fix your issues and situation though. But maybe you had the contract at a "bad" time where HQ was even shorter on ressources? Not that it should be an excuse though.
Judging from the comments in the post made on the Google group it seems that when 7.2 is out the guys will relax a bit not trying to fit in so many new big features for the next releases and then be able to pay some more attention to the issue tracker afterwards making sure the releases are nice and stable.
That's just my 2 cents for what it's worth :)
Cheers, Jan
Thanks for that; it sounds like the support system has improved since a couple of years ago so that's a good sign.
I do have workarounds for my issues, but whether I could code fixes is a whole other story; I barely even know what a pull request is (aside from "some Git thing")!
It seems that the best solution would be to move to v7, but that involves getting our glacially slow IT department involved. Maybe in 2016...
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