Long-Term Support (LTS) for Quarkus
We’re thrilled to announce the introduction of Long-Term Support (LTS) releases for Quarkus. We aim to strike a balance between our regular high-paced release cycle and the needs of users who require more stability and predictability.
LTS releases offer an opportunity for our community to enjoy a version of Quarkus, with the added assurance of critical patches, bug fixes, and security updates. We understand that not every user wants to continuously upgrade to the latest release and some prefer to stick with a version they know works for them. Until now Red Hat Build of Quarkus provided such an option, but we want to ensure Quarkus community project and especially community projects built on top of Quarkus has similar options.
The first release to be designated as LTS is the just released Quarkus 3.2.
Quarkus Users
Here’s what you need to know as a Quarkus user:
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Flexibility: We still recommend users to upgrade early and often, but users now have the choice to upgrade to the latest feature-packed version or stick with the stability and predictability of an LTS release. This decision can be made based on individual requirements and risk tolerance.
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Stability: LTS versions will be supported for a period of 12 months, allowing users to maintain the same version of Quarkus without worrying about new features introducing regressions or breaking changes. We aim to release a new LTS version every 6 months.
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Long-Term Support: LTS versions will continue receiving critical bug fixes, security patches, and performance enhancements even after introducing newer versions. Critical issues that directly impact functionality, performance, or security will be prioritized for fixes.
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Security: Regular security updates will be part of LTS releases, ensuring your applications stay protected against known important and critical vulnerabilities.
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Identification: LTS releases will for now be identified on https://quarkus.io/security. We are working on adding a new badge to the Quarkus website to make it easier to identify LTS releases.
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Implications for Non-LTS Releases: Our regular monthly-ish release cycle will continue as before, providing feature updates and improvements at a high pace for those who prefer to stay on the cutting edge.
Quarkus Extension Maintainers and Contributors
All of the above applies to Quarkus extension maintainers and contributors as well. In addition, we will be recommending that extension maintainers and contributors consider bug fixes and enhancements for LTS releases. This will ensure that LTS releases are as stable and robust as possible.
This means that extension maintainers and contributors will need to consider having branches and versioning in place for LTS releases.
Many extensions already have done this in the context of Quarkus 2 to 3 move. For example, Neo4j has a 1.x for Quarkus 2 and a 2.x branch for Quarkus 3. Going forward we will recommend that extensions have a branch for the LTS version (currently 3.2.x) and one for main Quarkus 3 features, a 3.x.
Feedback and Help
We’re excited to introduce the notion of LTS releases for Quarkus and look forward to your feedback. We probably don’t have everything considered or documented yet. If you have any questions or need help, please reach out on the mailing list or chat.
We believe this approach will allow Quarkus to continue to innovate and deliver new features at a high pace, while also providing stability and predicatabiliy to users.
As always, we extend our deepest gratitude to all community members whether users or contributors for your feedback and support. We encourage you to explore the new LTS releases and share your thoughts and experiences so we together can continue to refine and enhance Quarkus.
