[Python-Dev] What's New text on future maintenance

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> * It's very likely the 2.7 release will have a longer period of
>   maintenance compared to earlier 2.x versions.  Python 2.7 will
>   continue to be maintained while the transition to 3.x is in
>   progress, and that transition will itself be lengthy.  Most 2.x
>   versions are maintained for about 4 years, from the first to the
>   last bugfix release; patchlevel releases for Python 2.7 will
>   probably be made for at least 6 years.

I agree with Terry: how did you arrive at the 4 years for 2.x releases?
Bug fixes releases stopped after the next feature release being made,
which gave (counting between initial release and last bug fix release):
- 2.0 9 months
- 2.1 12 months
- 2.2 17 months
- 2.3 19 months
- 2.4 22 months
- 2.5 27 months
- 2.6 < 22 months (assuming the final 2.6 release is made before August)

In addition, since 2.3, we were offering security fixes for a period of
_five_ years.

So for 2.7, the question really is how long we create bug fix releases
and Windows binaries, rather than accepting only security fixes, and
producing source-only releases.

I'd personally expect that "longer" might mean 3 years (i.e. one more
release cycle), and definitely less than 6.

Regards,
Martin