>So, if I understand you correctly. My 350 clients, which I just upgraded to
>4.2, will only be supported until April 15th. ...
I think a lot of confusion is being generated by the nebulousness of the
term "supported" in all this. If you review some of the Tivoli announcement
letters you will find the definition:
End of Service (EOS): Defect support for Tivoli products will generally be
provided only for the current release and the most recent prior release. A
prior release will be eligible for service for 12 months following general
availability of the current release. These releases will be supported at the
latest maintenance ("point release") level.
So, cessation of support means that you can't call in with a problem in the
use of a 4.2 client and expect IBM to open the old modules and start writing
fixes for them. It in no way means that your software functionally falls apart
on that date.
The other aspect of "supported" comes into play as a definition of tested
compatibility. This you will find defined in chapter one of the Clients
manual, under "Upgrade path for clients and servers", the assurance that the
4.2 client will work with the 5.1 server, as determined by architectural
design decisions and subsequent vendor testing.
If you've been with the product for a period of years, you come to appreciate
that you can happily keep and live with an older version/release for quite a
while, often far longer than the assured compatibility can guarantee. Your
installed software may remain viable longer than you!
This all goes to show the agitation that comes from the loose employ of
industry terminology.
Richard Sims, BU
