MySQL Lifecycle Policy

Database administrators hate to upgrade their databases. At MySQL, we like to think that we have been early to recognise this, and we have given more or less unlimited support to even very old releases, on a multitude of platforms. However, this has not been without cost to ourselves.

Many of our users know that the cost of maintaining several releases is high. We have thus been asked to clarify our support lifecycle policy. After long internal discussions, that were not always easy, we are now pleased to say that we have an explicit support lifecycle policy. It addresses the timeframes we will provide updates and continued support for current and older versions of the MySQL server.

The article continues at http://www.planetmysql.org/kaj/?p=56