Open Source Blog

The source code for older versions will remain available, according to MySQL's VP of community Kaj Arno but the company is planning to cease public binary updates and active support for MySQL 3.23 at the end of July and 4.0 at the end of September.

"Keeping older versions alive for a long time is appreciated by our community and our customers alike. However, we are no longer in a position to maintain our older versions without remuneration," wrote Arno.

"This means that those wishing to enjoy MySQL’s support in their usage of MySQL 3.23 and MySQL 4.0 need to plan for their future, as our support of these releases will be limited to those covered by a MySQL Network subscription."

The full lifecycle policy (PDF) is available here and details how the company will support major releases for five years, including two years of active lifecycle, and three years of extended lifecycle (security updates and Level 1 bug fixes only).

Those timelines mean that extended support for MySQL 3.23 will end on December 31 2006, while 4.0 will reach the end of extended support on December 31 2008.

Version 4.1 will reach the end of active support on December 31 2006 and the end of extended support on December 31 2009, while the recently released 5.0 will reach end of active life on December 31 2007 and end of extended life on December 31 2010.