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<h2><a href="https://wiki.asterisk.org/wiki/display/AST/Proposed+changes+to+Asterisk+release+and+support+cycles">Proposed changes to Asterisk release and support cycles</a></h2>
<h4>Page <b>added</b> by <a href="https://wiki.asterisk.org/wiki/display/~kpfleming">Kevin P. Fleming</a>
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<p>As documented <a href="/wiki/display/AST/Asterisk+Versions" title="Asterisk Versions">here</a>, the current plans for Asterisk 11 and later releases state that there will be a Long Term Support (LTS) release every three years, and two regular releases in the years between.</p>
<p>Some of Digium's large customers (both commercial and open-source) have expressed some concerns about the amount of time between the LTS releases, and the amount of time that an LTS release would be supported after its 'replacement' LTS release has been made (which would be one year, based on the current plans). After a great deal of discussion amongst Digium's development team and project management, we've decided to propose changing the release plans somewhat. The new plan would have an LTS release <b>every other year</b>, and regular releases in between them. This would accomplish a few things:</p>
<ul>
<li>Users of LTS releases would have two years to migrate to a new LTS release before their current one enters the 'security fix only' state, and an additional year if they are willing to continue using it during that time.</li>
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<ul>
<li>Features added to Asterisk would become available in LTS releases as much as a year sooner than they would have otherwise.</li>
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<p>It does have some potential downsides, though:</p>
<ul>
<li>The Asterisk development team (both Digium and community developers) would be 'signing up' to maintain an additional branch; in general, there would be as many as four active branches (not counting those in 'security fix only' state), instead of three.</li>
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<li>With the increased frequency of LTS releases, there would be additional pressure to make LTS releases be primarily 'stabilization' releases, instead of adding a lot of new features (or making significant architectural changes). With only one year between LTS and non-LTS releases, more concerted effort would be necessary to increase confidence in the code base before releasing it as an LTS.</li>
</ul>
<p>The proposed new plan would look like this:</p>
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