> Unlike the transition from 3.x to 4.x, this release will not introduce > significant API breakage.
> We also plan to sunset the 3.x line in the near future, and strongly > encourage users to upgrade to the 4.x series. I remember talking with Adam Holmberg and some other driver devs back in the day about the possibility of an API shim bridging the 3.x and 4.x line. Something similar to how the python community ended up introducing six <https://pypi.org/project/six/> to try and bridge their pretty painful gap in their extensive API breakages between those majors. I think we should revisit that idea now that we have some tooling that could make the process of designing and implementing a "nuts and bolts plumbing" bridge layer like that much lower effort. We have a long history on this project ecosystem (not drivers; cassandra :) ) of introducing API breakages without a paved-path for app devs and operators to transition the pre -> post world; avoiding the community fracture and long-term forks that arise from this would be very much worth the effort IMO. On Thu, Jun 25, 2026, at 5:07 PM, Jane H wrote: > Hi all, > > We’re pleased to share the release plan for the Apache Cassandra Java Driver. > > The next release will be a major version, 5.0. Unlike the transition from 3.x > to 4.x, this release will not introduce significant API breakage. However, we > do plan to drop support for Java 8 and Java 11, making Java 17 the minimum > supported version. > > Our rationale is as follows: > 1. End-of-life status. Both Java 8 and Java 11 have reached end of life > (Oracle Premier Support)—Java 8 in March 2022 and Java 11 in September 2023. > 2. User adoption trends. Based on our recent Java Driver user survey (22 > responses): > • 75% are already running the driver on Java 17 or later > • 90% believe Java 17 or newer should be the minimum supported version for > 5.0 > • 52% Java 17 > • 38% Java 21 > • Modern platform benefits. Building on Java 17 enables us to take advantage > of modern language features, tooling, and libraries—for example, adopting > Jackson 3. > > In addition, the next 3.x release will be 3.13.0, which will support JDK 8+ > (instead of JDK 6). We also plan to sunset the 3.x line in the near future, > and strongly encourage users to upgrade to the 4.x series. > To help with migration, please refer to the upgrade guide: > https://apache.github.io/cassandra-java-driver/4.19.0/upgrade-README/ > > Cheers, > The Apache Cassandra Java Driver Developers
