We demand: No more prolonging of ELTS versions after the initial 3 years

We have posted an article on talk.typo3.org about the possible prolongation of the ELTS period. The article was also posted on our own blog in a German and English version. But we ask that a possible discussion takes place collectively on talk.typo3.org.

The TYPO3 roadmap has a clear release strategy. After the regular maintenance period of 1.5 years, there is an additional 1.5 years of LTS coverage. In addition, it is possible to book ELTS plans with TYPO3 GmbH for another maximum of 3 years. Within the scope of this extended support, fixes will continue to be provided for the version from the official side. To conclude: In total, there are 6 years of possible support for every major TYPO3 version. Significantly more than many other open source projects.

At the end of March 2023, the 3 years of ELTS support for TYPO3 8.7 will expire. We are clearly against another subsequent prolongation of the TYPO3 8.7 ELTS period and strongly disagree with the current procedure; the timing of the communication would also be conceivably badly chosen. Since we were already very displeased with the procedure when the 7.6 ELTS was extended for another year, we would like to take this as an opportunity to voice our criticism:

The development of TYPO3 is progressing continuously. New versions have more features for all target groups, are more performant and are easier to use. With the latest versions and their features, TYPO3 can impress significantly more customers, users and developers, who will then in turn report positively on their user experience and support getting rid of negative reviews due to an outdated look, feel and feature set.

The TYPO3 project communicates openly, precisely and very directly the runtime of the individual versions. This is important for the development and hosting of TYPO3 based installations – both services we offer for our clients.

Extension developers expect this in order to plan a release strategy and updates. A subsequent extension of the ELTS period means new planning and possibly additional work. Especially if the extension depends on 3rd party systems. Developers want to work with the latest technology and have no desire to “tinker” with old TYPO3 versions. It must be the goal that TYPO3 developers work more with the latest technology. Otherwise, developers will turn to other projects that are more exciting.

Hosters of TYPO3 systems expect this in order to plan and maintain a system architecture. A subsequent prolonging can thereby imply the need for a complete recreation of the former hosting environment so that required software states can be continually operated. Furthermore, the effort for a hoster to safely run software that is already out of official support is immense – if even possible at all. Likewise, keeping old software versions permanently available slows down the further development of the hosting environment.

The latest versions of TYPO3 are more performant, as are the necessary software packages such as PHP or MySQL or the operating systems. Performance nowadays always refers to speed in terms of energy consumption. More up-to-date software achieves the same good speed with less energy. Using current versions therefore leads to energy savings and increases sustainability. With the amount of all TYPO3 installations worldwide, this adds up to quite a lot.

As an agency, we are the link between TYPO3 and the client. We communicate the end of life date early and make a plan with the client for the upgrade. The client relies on us and on our expertise as TYPO3 specialists. Now, when the EOL dates change, the client also questions us as an agency: “Did my agency advise me correctly or did the agency just want to earn a lot from me with the big project?” and subsequently “Can I still trust my agency?”.

This damages the customer relationship and can lead to a loss of clients for the agency. Only if we, as an active TYPO3 agency, have good customer relationships, we can support the TYPO3 project through our membership, through the supportive work we put into the project for free.

This is not a theoretical case: the fourth year ELTS for TYPO3 7.6 led to the fact that we did not do a major relaunch project for one of our clients – financially very painful in times of COVID-19 and the general economic situation.

Sure, one can now argue that the TYPO3 project generates revenue through the fourth ELTS year, which benefits the TYPO3 project. We believe that it is more sustainable for the TYPO3 project to stand by its promises and stick to the announced release strategy.

With regard to the prolongation of the ELTS period for version 7, which has already taken place, a clear communication of the criteria for a prolongation would have been important. There is a lack of transparency here, especially when weighing up the costs and benefits for the whole TYPO3 ecosystem!

We – Marketing Factory Consulting GmbH – do not agree with a further ELTS prolongation beyond the previously communicated 3 years for the reasons mentioned above. We have already suffered a financial loss due to the prolongation of the 7.6 LTS version. We cannot accept a further prolongation of the 8.7 LTS version without putting our financial and personnel commitment to the TYPO3 project into question.

Ingo Schmitt, CEO Marketing Factory Consulting GmbH