[TriLUG] [Fwd: [Security Announce] ANNOUNCEMENT: End of life product policy]

[Jeremy Portzer]

I like the desktop/base distinction, since it's often easier to upgrade
desktops than servers.  Do they provide an exact list somewhere of which
packages comprise desktop, and which are base?

--Jeremy

On Tue, 2003-02-04 at 23:25, Tanner Lovelace wrote:
> Since people were talking about RedHat's End of Life policy, I thought
> I'd forward this message that came over the Mandrake Security updates
> list yesterday.  I think I like how they do things better.  I run
> Mandrake 9.0 on my internet server, but since it doesn't have a 
> desktop, I get an extra 6 months before I have to worry about
> upgrading.
> 
> Cheer,
> Tanner
> 
> -----Forwarded Message-----
> 
> From: Vincent Danen <vdanen at mandrakesoft.com>
> To: announce at mandrakesecure.net
> Cc: security-announce at linux-mandrake.com
> Subject: [Security Announce] ANNOUNCEMENT: End of life product policy
> Date: 03 Feb 2003 16:14:02 -0700
> 
> This email outlines and clarifies the product lifetime for the Mandrake
> Linux operating system, and gives the end of life dates of our products.
> 
> With the forthcoming release of Mandrake Linux 9.1, we are forced to
> consider the product lifetime of existing products.  Because every update
> released by MandrakeSoft involves extensive testing and QA, we feel that 
> we are better able to provide support for, and deliver timely support of, 
> our products by discontinuing support for "legacy" distributions.
> 
> The product life of Mandrake Linux products has not been publicly
> disclosed, and as a result customers may have been forced into quick
> migrations to newer products to continue receiving security and bug fix
> updates.  We believe that customers should be able to plan migrations to 
> newer distributions well in advance of their discontinuation date.
> 
> With the release of Mandrake Linux 9.1, we will put in place a cycle that
> customers can easily anticipate.  MandrakeSoft will provide 12 months of
> "desktop" support for distributions, and 18 months of "base" support for
> distributions.  This means that applications such as window managers,
> desktop environments, browsers, etc. will have a 12 month support life,
> while applications such as the kernel, Apache, and other "base" components
> will have a support life of 18 months.  At certain times, MandrakeSoft may
> choose to extend support for certain versions of Mandrake Linux.
> 
> Finally, specialized "server" products, will have a full life support of 
> no less than 24 months.
> 
> The following is a schedule of when support will be dropped for products
> that are currently supported:
> 
>   Product			Desktop Updates		Base Updates
>   --------------------  	----------------------  ------------------
>   Mandrake Linux 7.2		immediately		March 31, 2003
>   Mandrake Linux 8.0		immediately		March 31, 2003
>   Mandrake Linux 8.1		March 31, 2003		March 31, 2003
>   Single Network Firewall 7.2	n/a			June 1, 2003
>   Mandrake Linux 8.2		March 31, 2003		September 31, 2003
>   Mandrake Linux 9.0		September 31, 2003	March 31, 2004
>   Multi Network Firewall 8.2	n/a			December 12, 2004
> 
> All users of these products should plan to upgrade before the noted
> termination of support dates in order to continue receiving updates.
> 
> -- 
> MandrakeSoft Security; http://www.mandrakesecure.net/
> "lynx -source http://linsec.ca/vdanen.asc | gpg --import"
> {FE6F2AFD : 88D8 0D23 8D4B 3407 5BD7  66F9 2043 D0E5 FE6F 2AFD}
> -- 
> Tanner Lovelace <lovelace at wayfarer.org>
> Wayfarer