Good points, responses in-line :)

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On Sat, Feb 14, 2026 at 3:32 PM Dongjoon Hyun <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi Holden,
>
> Thank you for your passion and for keeping this thread up to date. I truly
> appreciate it.
>
> This situation is a bit tricky, as it exponentially increases the
> maintenance burden for the following reasons:
>
> (1) Legacy Tech Stack Support: This would require us to support Java 8,
> Scala 2.12, Python 3.8, and SparkR. For instance, I don’t believe we can
> maintain PySpark 3.5 on Python 3.8 at our previously promised service
> level. We would definitely need to downgrade the support level, and this
> must be made crystal clear to the community.
>
> (2) Impact on Subprojects: It adds a significant burden to all Apache
> Spark subprojects, such as the Apache K8s Operator and Spark Connect
> clients (Swift/Go/Rust). For example, while Spark 3.5 must support K8s
> 1.24+, Spark 4.0 targets K8s 1.30+. The extended period effectively locks
> us into supporting older K8s versions that are no longer available from
> major public cloud vendors.
>
This is an interesting consideration. I think we can scope this down to
Spark itself, and Spark subprojects can make their own decision as they
have their own release cadence broadley speaking -- but we should make that
clear in the documentation.

>
> (3) Ecosystem-wide Pressure: This also places constraints on Spark-related
> ASF sister projects like Iceberg, Parquet, ORC, Celeborn, Gluten, and
> Comet. While the final decision rests with them, I believe they need to be
> informed of our strategic direction.
>
This is a good point. I think we can reach out to their dev lists once
we've reached an in-project consensus.

>
> To provide extended community support responsibly, we need at least three
> clearly defined components:
>
> (a) A predefined extension period (Confirmed)
> (b) A predefined pool of Release Managers (Holden has volunteered)
> (c) A predefined release cadence (Currently unknown as discussed so far)
>
> Regarding (c), I believe we can keep it simple, similar to the Apache
> Spark 4.x preview releases. Currently, Hyukjin has successfully managed all
> previews by leveraging automation, with the only exception being
> 4.1.0-preview4, which I assisted with. For 3.5.x, we should maintain the
> same cadence as before. Perhaps Holden could manage a release every four
> months if there are new patches on branch-3.5. Of course, other community
> members can assist as well.
>
I think 4 months is a reasonable cadence, but we'd only bother with a
release, of course, if there is a new security issue.

>
> Sincerely,
> Dongjoon Hyun
>
> On 2026/02/13 19:27:48 Holden Karau wrote:
> > I wasn’t super sure about that, I know the initial proposal was a little
> > sparse for some so I figured I’d make it a bit more formal and follow the
> > SPIP process like we did with the overall release process change.
> >
> > Twitter: https://twitter.com/holdenkarau
> > Fight Health Insurance: https://www.fighthealthinsurance.com/
> > <https://www.fighthealthinsurance.com/?q=hk_email>
> > Books (Learning Spark, High Performance Spark, etc.):
> > https://amzn.to/2MaRAG9  <https://amzn.to/2MaRAG9>
> > YouTube Live Streams: https://www.youtube.com/user/holdenkarau
> > Pronouns: she/her
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Feb 12, 2026 at 11:58 PM Wenchen Fan <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> >
> > > This is a procedure change, not a code change, do we need SPIP?
> Anyway, +1
> > > to the proposal!
> > >
> > > On Thu, Feb 12, 2026 at 6:28 AM Holden Karau <[email protected]>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >> This is a more formal (but still a discussion level thread) proposing
> an
> > >> extended 3.5 LTS window to allow for people to complete their
> migrations
> > >> given the less than one year between 4.0 release and 3.5 EOL.
> > >>
> > >> The draft SPIP is
> > >>
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/15fb-7DNztzpQMF1MQovK75UmpC6um7KgO8cg_X5oa1I/edit?usp=sharing
> > >> and the JIRA SPARK-55489
> > >> <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SPARK-55489>
> > >>
> > >> Previous discussion was:
> > >> https://lists.apache.org/thread/4r6q8187b30p0ppclw0pyfjp8h8xs3rq
> > >>
> > >> Cheers,
> > >>
> > >> Holden :)
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> Twitter: https://twitter.com/holdenkarau
> > >> Fight Health Insurance: https://www.fighthealthinsurance.com/
> > >> <https://www.fighthealthinsurance.com/?q=hk_email>
> > >> Books (Learning Spark, High Performance Spark, etc.):
> > >> https://amzn.to/2MaRAG9  <https://amzn.to/2MaRAG9>
> > >> YouTube Live Streams: https://www.youtube.com/user/holdenkarau
> > >> Pronouns: she/her
> > >>
> > >
> >
>
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