+1 On Thu, Feb 26, 2026 at 12:00 AM Holden Karau <[email protected]> wrote:
> It’s true experience for some users may gradually degrade as related > projects gradually drop 3.5 support, personally I suspect they’ll probably > continue for awhile as we saw with 2.4. > > It’s up to each person to figure out what their environment requires and > how to prioritize their upgrade. > > 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 Wed, Feb 25, 2026 at 11:43 PM Mridul Muralidharan <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> >> If Apache Spark supports an LTS version while its sister projects, >> managed by the Spark PMC do not, it would result in a poor end user >> experience. >> The larger ecosystem will ofcourse have its own support matrix. >> >> Regards, >> Mridul >> >> >> On Wed, Feb 25, 2026 at 3:48 PM Holden Karau <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> I've updated the doc with "The scope of the LTS is limited to Spark >>> itself and does not apply to related/sister projects (like Spark on K8s >>> operator)." Just checking in to make sure conversation is settled and it's >>> an ok time to bring this forward to a vote (if folks have more thoughts I >>> want to give them time to bring them up). >>> >>> On Mon, Feb 16, 2026 at 9:39 AM Holden Karau <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Good points, responses in-line :) >>>> >>>> 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 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 >>>>> > >> >>>>> > > >>>>> > >>>>> >>>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>> To unsubscribe e-mail: [email protected] >>>>> >>>>> >>> >>> -- >>> 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 >>> >>
