Django moves to an annual release cycle with three years of support

The team behind the popular Python framework Django has announced that it has adopted a proposal to move to an annual release cycle. In place of the previous, confusing scheme — in which short-lived feature releases alternated with long-term support (LTS) versions — the project is switching to a simple yearly cadence in which each release gets three years of support.

A single support window

From now on, every feature release comes with three years of maintenance: the first year for ordinary bug fixes, and the following two years for security and data-loss fixes only. The “LTS” label is being retired in the process: there will no longer be a separate “long-lived” release, since the same commitment applies to every release without exception.

The main consequence of this decision is the disappearance of the so-called gap between LTS versions. Previously, users who wanted to stay on a supported branch often had to hastily leap across two years' worth of accumulated changes in order to make it to the next LTS. Now they can upgrade one step at a time, once a year, at whatever moment is convenient within the support window, without having to work around rigid deadlines.

A reference point for the ecosystem

At any given moment, three versions remain supported simultaneously. This gives third-party package developers a clear, predictable target: a sliding window of compatibility that is convenient to build around when maintaining their own libraries.

The new arrangement takes effect with the release of Django 2028, which is expected in January 2028.

Source: LWN.net