Mandrake Linux product lifetime.
This message outlines and clarifies the product lifetime for the Mandrake Linux operating system, and gives the end of life dates of our products.
With the forthcoming release of Mandrake Linux 9.1, we are forced to consider the product lifetime of existing products. Because every update released by MandrakeSoft involves extensive testing and QA, we feel that we are better able to provide support for, and deliver timely support of, our products by discontinuing support for "legacy" distributions.
The product life of Mandrake Linux products has not been publicly disclosed, and as a result customers may have been forced into quick migrations to newer products to continue receiving security and bug fix updates. We believe that customers should be able to plan migrations to newer distributions well in advance of their discontinuation date.
With the release of Mandrake Linux 9.1, we will put in place a cycle that customers can easily anticipate. MandrakeSoft will provide 12 months of "desktop" updates for distributions, and 18 months of "base" updates for distributions. This means that applications such as window managers, desktop environments, browsers, etc. will have a 12 month package update life, while applications such as the kernel, Apache, and other "base" components will have a support life of 18 months. At certain times, MandrakeSoft may choose to extend updates support for certain versions of Mandrake Linux.
Finally, specialized "server" products, will have a full life of updates support of no less than 24 months.
The following is a schedule of when updates support will be dropped for products that are currently supported:
| Product | Desktop Updates | Base Updates |
| Mandrake Linux 7.2 | immediately | March 31, 2003 |
| Mandrake Linux 8.0 | immediately | March 31, 2003 |
| Mandrake Linux 8.1 | March 31, 2003 | March 31, 2003 |
| Single Network Firewall 7.2 | n/a | June 1, 2003 |
| Mandrake Linux 8.2 | March 31, 2003 | September 30, 2003 |
| Mandrake Linux 9.0 | September 30, 2003 | March 31, 2004 |
| Multi Network Firewall 8.2 | n/a | December 12, 2004 |
All users of these products should plan to upgrade before the noted termination of support dates in order to continue receiving updates.
Additional informations will be available at MandrakeSecure.net
Copyright 2003