The site is pretty basic, has a good sized reusable component library, but is mostly using out of the box stuff. I'm inclined to recommend v10 because of its longer EOL cycle, but I also don't know if that's a good idea being 2 versions behind when 12 comes out at the end of this month.
We don't need to be on the bleeding edge, but we do want to keep support/security patches in mind. What kind of cadence do you use as developers now that releases are coming fast and furious?
Also, why is 10 using such a long lifecycle when everything else coming out is on a one-year cycle?
Logically, it seems like staying on v10 until 2025 is the best solution. However, by the time that happens, v15 will have been out for 6 months and will be EOL'd 6 months later. If I wait until v16, what kind of a headache will it be to jump 6 versions? The struggle is real.
I certainly feel your pain - It's hard to keep up currently and it's hard to figure out what the best advice to give the clients currently is - I think the reason for this speedy change is that HQ want to align their LTS with the .NET versions that have a long LTS as well. I think the ambition long term is to making going from one major to another major feel like going from one minor to another minor so it becomes less of a "big deal" upgrading. Only the future can tell if this becomes a reality but I'm hoping that once the backoffice re-write has been shipped (Currently scheduled for v14) that this will be reality... But we'll see what the future brings I guess :-)
That being said I'm wondering if perhaps your strategy should be to upgrade to v12 once it's released in stable June 29th leaving you and your client in the best position to go to v13 in December 2023, which will extend the EOL period to December 2026. Even though it can sound like a big hassle doing the upgrades it appears to have been going fairly smooth the ones I've done from v9 to v10 and 11 this far. But of course it requires some work to do it and some backups of course and an overview of code that might break, 3rd party packages etc. etc. :-) If the site is fairly basic not making use of any 3rd party packages that have not been upgraded then I think that would be the path I would go for currently.
However if that idea is not appealing to you or your client due to budget reasons or whatever it might be I think I would go to v10 and then wait until the EOL phase going to whatever is the version with the longest LTS at that time.
This is good advice. Thanks Jan! I think we have two options, upgrade to 10 and wait it out, putting us pretty far behind once 10 is EOL, or get on an upgrade path to 13 which at least puts us out to 2026. However, and I didn't know this, that the back-office is being updated in v14, that makes it kind of critical to get onto 14 as soon as possible.
One of the prevailing view points of the new release cadence, in my experience, is LTS is your friend. With the new cadence and how the Umbraco HQ are approaching things, they are trying to keep the upgrades as easy as possible.
So, if it was me, I would recommend v10 unless you need a feature from v11 or v12. But I would also plan into the clients future schedule the upgrade from v10 to v13 (LTS - LTS).
Unlike previous Umbraco versions (4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8) upgrades between majors (for the most part) should be like doing a Minor upgrade with minimal breaking changes. The Upgrade from 9 to 10 has been straight forward, the upgrades from 10 - 11 or 10 - 12 have been straight forward so far and I wouldn't expect this to change for 10 - 13.
The new back office is dues to be released in 14 which is a non LTS version, and I would only upgrade to 14 if I needed a feature from it, or I was testing the new back office. Once a site is on v13 (LTS), there is plenty of time to schedule in test upgrades to v14/v15/v16 to make sure it's not going to be an issue, and also gives package developers time to upgrade packages for the new back office as this will be a fair amount of work. Angular JS is going and it's becoming native web components, that also gives you time to re-write any back office customisations you may have done.
Umbraco Versioning Confusion
Hey all, I have some questions on how Umbraco is versioned that I'm hoping the community can help sort.
We have a client who has a site on Umbraco 9.0.1. I just found out today that v9 was end-of-life'd in Dec 2022.
I'm trying to put together an upgrade plan and looking at the release schedule, I'm not sure what to recommend.
According to this: https://umbraco.com/products/knowledge-center/long-term-support-and-end-of-life/
The site is pretty basic, has a good sized reusable component library, but is mostly using out of the box stuff. I'm inclined to recommend v10 because of its longer EOL cycle, but I also don't know if that's a good idea being 2 versions behind when 12 comes out at the end of this month.
We don't need to be on the bleeding edge, but we do want to keep support/security patches in mind. What kind of cadence do you use as developers now that releases are coming fast and furious?
Also, why is 10 using such a long lifecycle when everything else coming out is on a one-year cycle?
Logically, it seems like staying on v10 until 2025 is the best solution. However, by the time that happens, v15 will have been out for 6 months and will be EOL'd 6 months later. If I wait until v16, what kind of a headache will it be to jump 6 versions? The struggle is real.
Hi Travis
I certainly feel your pain - It's hard to keep up currently and it's hard to figure out what the best advice to give the clients currently is - I think the reason for this speedy change is that HQ want to align their LTS with the .NET versions that have a long LTS as well. I think the ambition long term is to making going from one major to another major feel like going from one minor to another minor so it becomes less of a "big deal" upgrading. Only the future can tell if this becomes a reality but I'm hoping that once the backoffice re-write has been shipped (Currently scheduled for v14) that this will be reality... But we'll see what the future brings I guess :-)
That being said I'm wondering if perhaps your strategy should be to upgrade to v12 once it's released in stable June 29th leaving you and your client in the best position to go to v13 in December 2023, which will extend the EOL period to December 2026. Even though it can sound like a big hassle doing the upgrades it appears to have been going fairly smooth the ones I've done from v9 to v10 and 11 this far. But of course it requires some work to do it and some backups of course and an overview of code that might break, 3rd party packages etc. etc. :-) If the site is fairly basic not making use of any 3rd party packages that have not been upgraded then I think that would be the path I would go for currently.
However if that idea is not appealing to you or your client due to budget reasons or whatever it might be I think I would go to v10 and then wait until the EOL phase going to whatever is the version with the longest LTS at that time.
Hope this helps a bit :-)
/Jan
This is good advice. Thanks Jan! I think we have two options, upgrade to 10 and wait it out, putting us pretty far behind once 10 is EOL, or get on an upgrade path to 13 which at least puts us out to 2026. However, and I didn't know this, that the back-office is being updated in v14, that makes it kind of critical to get onto 14 as soon as possible.
Hi Travis,
One of the prevailing view points of the new release cadence, in my experience, is LTS is your friend. With the new cadence and how the Umbraco HQ are approaching things, they are trying to keep the upgrades as easy as possible.
So, if it was me, I would recommend v10 unless you need a feature from v11 or v12. But I would also plan into the clients future schedule the upgrade from v10 to v13 (LTS - LTS).
Unlike previous Umbraco versions (4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8) upgrades between majors (for the most part) should be like doing a Minor upgrade with minimal breaking changes. The Upgrade from 9 to 10 has been straight forward, the upgrades from 10 - 11 or 10 - 12 have been straight forward so far and I wouldn't expect this to change for 10 - 13.
The new back office is dues to be released in 14 which is a non LTS version, and I would only upgrade to 14 if I needed a feature from it, or I was testing the new back office. Once a site is on v13 (LTS), there is plenty of time to schedule in test upgrades to v14/v15/v16 to make sure it's not going to be an issue, and also gives package developers time to upgrade packages for the new back office as this will be a fair amount of work. Angular JS is going and it's becoming native web components, that also gives you time to re-write any back office customisations you may have done.
I hope that helps with your decision making.
Thanks
Nik
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