Three-year lifecycle leaves enterprises with barely a year to adopt each LTS release
Microsoft's support policy for its .NET runtime and development platform is too short for enterprises, according to a developer who has revived a long-standing complaint in a new GitHub issue.The current release lifecycle for modern .NET, formerly known as .NET Core, is an annual major release, with even-numbered versions being long-term support (LTS) for three years, and odd-numbered versions maintained for two years. The legacy and Windows-only .NET Framework, which is in maintenance, is defined as a component of Windows and therefore supported for much longer. Breaking changes are rare, but it is old and many libraries and application frameworks do not support it, including Microsoft's ASP.NET Core.
Earlier this month, a developer opened an issue in the official .NET repository arguing that the LTS support window is "too short for upgrade and adoption cycles." The problem with the current three-year cycle is that by the time the next LTS release appears, two of those years have already elapsed, leaving just one year to upgrade. Even when they can get the upgrade done in time, potential customers "are hesitant to adopt software which is soon to run out of the defined EOL [end of life] window."
