Greetings, HBase 0.98.0 was released in February of 2014. We have had 21 releases in 2 1/2 years at a fairly regular cadence, a terrific run for any software product. However as 0.98 RM I think it's now time to discuss winding down 0.98. I want to give you notice of this as far in advance as possible (and have just come to a decision barely this week). We have several more recent releases at this point that are quite stable, a superset of 0.98 functionality, and have been proven in deployments. It's wise not to take on unnecessary risk by upgrading from a particular version, but in the case of 0.98, it's getting to be that time.
If you have not yet, I would encourage you to take a few moments to participate in our fully anonymous usage survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NJFKKGW . According to results received so far, the versions of HBase in production use break down as: - 0.94 - 19% - 0.96 - 2% - *0.98 - 23%* - 1.0 - 20% - 1.1 - 34% - 1.2 - 23% These figures add up to more than 100% because some respondents I expect run more than one version. For those 23% still on 0.98 (and the 2% on 0.96) it's time to start seriously thinking about an upgrade to 1.1 or later. The upgrade process can be done in a rolling manner. We consider 1.1 (and 1.2 for that matter) to be stable and ready for production. As 0.98 RM, my plan is to continue active maintenance at a roughly monthly release cadence through December of this year. However in January 2017 I plan to tender my resignation as 0.98 RM and, hopefully, take that active role forward to more recent code not so full of dust and cobwebs and more interesting to develop and maintain. Unless someone else steps up to take on that task this will end regular 0.98 releases. I do not expect anyone to take on that role, frankly. Of course we can still make occasional 0.98 releases on demand. Any committer can wrangle the bits and the PMC can entertain a vote. (If you can conscript a committer to assist with releasing I don't think you even need to be a committer to function as RM for a release.) Anyway, concurrent with my resignation as 0.98 RM I expect the project to discuss and decide an official position on 0.98 support. It is quite possible we will announce that position to be an end of life. -- Best regards, - Andy Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by hitting back. - Piet Hein (via Tom White)
