All, PR 1647 [1] proposes dropping support for Ubuntu 12.04 from 4.9.2.0+. The primary motivation for its removal is that the age of its libvirt and qemu versions greatly complicate maintenance of the KVM integration. However, Ubuntu 12.04 will be supported until April 2017 [2]. What would be the impact to our user community of removing support for Ubuntu 12.04 before its EOL in April 2017? If we don’t drop support for it in 4.x, would it be acceptable to drop support for it in 5.0.0 which is currently scheduled for release at the end of 2016 [3]?
If we do chose to drop support for Ubuntu 12.04 in 4.x, I propose that we remove it in 4.10.0.0 rather than 4.9.2.0. First, it is reasonable for users to expect that upgrading between patch releases (i.e. 4.9.x.x -> 4.9.x+1.x) would not require system changes. Dropping a distribution would violate such an expectation. Second, 4.9 is an LTS branch. Therefore, maintaining 12.04 support in 4.9 would provide LTS users with support for Ubuntu 12.04 until May 2018 — well after its EOL. Does this approach seem reasonable if we elect drop Ubuntu 12.04 in 4.x? Thanks, -John [1]: https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/pull/1647 [2]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases [3]: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/CLOUDSTACK/%5BPROPOSAL%5D+2016-2017+Release+Cycle+and+Calendar<https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/CLOUDSTACK/[PROPOSAL]+2016-2017+Release+Cycle+and+Calendar> john.burw...@shapeblue.com www.shapeblue.com 53 Chandos Place, Covent Garden, London VA WC2N 4HSUK @shapeblue
