Hi Keith,
If you look at the historic releases, once a minor version has been bumped
there have been no more releases to the previous minor version for 3.x, see
https://maven.apache.org/docs/history.html
For major version releases, maven 1 and maven 2 did have an overlap where
1.1 got released after 2.0.7. But the same overlapping releases didn't
happen for maven 2 and maven 3.
You mention the current version 3.5.3. I considered 3.5.x tech debt and out
of support already. I upgraded from 3.5.3 to 3.6.1 upon its release and it
worked for my projects, so I skipped 3.6.0 as during testing of 3.6.0 it
had some issues with some projects so didn't upgrade. Also upgrading little
and often means a tidal wave of tech debt doesn't build up so you're only
spending 5% on going upgrading, instead of having to spend 100% for a few
weeks/months/year taking out new functionality.
Personally I consider all Open Source projects to be Rolling Support even
if they don't explicitly state that. As most volunteers probably won't be
interested in backporting bug fixes or investigating issues with older
releases where that works on the latest release. Even with commercial
support, my experience of Oracle support for WebLogic was the first
question they asked was have you upgraded to the latest maintenance release
and does it still have issues. But at least with Oracle if you have paid
for support they will investigate the version you need to use if you're not
able to upgrade.
Sorry it's not a definitive answer regarding v3.5.3 support. I'm working in
a similar situation where software versions where older than they should
have been and tech debt was left for far longer than it should have been,
so most projects are just upgrades at the moment.
John
On Thu, 26 Nov 2020 at 05:19, Bernd Eckenfels
wrote:
> Hello Keith,
>
> Apache is a volunteer driven organisation, as long as volunteers,
> including your Organisation contribute patches (and funding) the software
> is supported. There is no guarantee or contract you can obtain for that.
>
> You haven’t specified which projects (plugins) in particular you are
> interested in, however the general maven project is not planning to stop
> development. Some older versions however might not be actively maintained
> anymore, and it is always a good idea to stay with the latest release.
>
> Maven 3.6.3 is recent, so I would not expect any more releases in the
> Maven 3.5.x line. (However as already explained, if enough organizations
> invest the time and produce a critical fix, together with this free
> development community, why not. It would be however much easier to just
> upgrade)
>
> Gruss
> Bernd
> (An unofficial bystander, triggered by formal requests)
> --
> http://bernd.eckenfels.net
>
>
> Von: Crawford, Keith K CIV USARMY SEC (USA)
>
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, November 26, 2020 12:49 AM
> An: dev@maven.apache.org
> Betreff: Apache Maven Software
>
> Maven Support,
>
> We are going through the Assess Only process of licensed and open source
> client software for Information Assurance. As part of the package we must
> submit dates for support End of Support for current version 3.5.3, not just
> the release date. We need this information to install and use this
> software, required by our developers in support of multiple programs. Can
> you provide support or End of Support dates for Apache Maven 3.5.3, please?
>
> V/r,
>
> Keith Crawford
> Enterprise Architect
> Technical Services Branch
> Technical Operations Division
> Army Shared Services Center
> CECOM Software Engineering Center (SEC)
>
> ☎ (804) 734 - 5204Feldman Hall
> (804) 892 - 5759Govt Mobile
> ✉ keith.k.crawford@mail.mil
>
>
>
>
>
