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OS Support Policy

Michael Stingl edited this page Jun 16, 2017 · 10 revisions

State of this document

This document is not maintained at the moment. Please check ownCloud docs for the latest information: https://doc.owncloud.org/server/latest/admin_manual/installation/system_requirements.html#desktop

Scope of this document

This document discusses the availability of ownCloud vendor packages for the ownCloud desktop Clients. It does not affect packages that Distributions might hold available in their regular package repositories.

Windows

Currently, the following versions of Windows are supported:

  • Windows 7
  • Windows 8
  • Windows 8.1
  • Windows 10

While the client can still be installed on Windows XP and Windows Vista, those versions have reached their End of Life and are no longer part of the regular QA cycle. They are currently supported on a best-effort basis and will be dropped completely in the future.

Windows 10 developer builds, in particular fast ring updates, have a history of temporarily breaking Client functionality. If you report issues with developer builds, please specify exactly which build you are using.

The support for Windows versions other than Windows 10 will be determined by their official support state by Microsoft. Any end of life declared by Microsoft will end the support by ownCloud, as security can no longer be guaranteed.

Microsoft plans for Windows 10 to remain a perpetually upgrading release. For now, all states of Windows 10 will be supported. We will determine if we need to limit this in the future, in accordance with Microsofts policies for Enterprise customers.

Mac OS

ownCloud attempts to support at least the three most recent releases of MacOS, knowing that hardware constraints make it impossible to update. The following Versions are supported:

  • OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion1)
  • OS X 10.9 Mavericks1)
  • OS X 10.10 Yosemite
  • OS X 10.11 El Capitan
  • macOS 10.12 Sierra2)

1) Supported on best effort basis. 2) Experimental until no final version has been released

With the final release of macOS 10.12, support for MacOS 10.8 and 10.9 will be ended, in time of Apple is expected to announce the End of Life for 10.9.

Linux

Ubuntu LTS

ownCloud Client will be provided and supported the latest and second to latest version of any given version.

Example: Before April 2016: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS were supported. After the release of and after ownCloud has commenced support for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS was dropped and support for 16.04 LTS has been added.

Similarly, support for CentOS/RHEL 6 will be dropped after CentOS/RHEL 8 become available and are officially supported by ownCloud.

Regular packaged Distributions (Debian, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora)

For other distributions, the same principle applies, i.e. we will support the two latest versions. Should a distribution reach its end of life without two new releases available, it will be dropped as well, since we no longer have any guarantee about the safety of the platform.

When exactly is support being ended?

Support for a particular distribution is ended with the release of a new version of the desktop client. Patch releases (where z changes in x.y.z) will keep compatibility.

What if this policy do not fit my needs?

If your organization requires support for older operating systems than outlined in this policy, we can still make this happen through either of two ways:

  1. If you are a subscriber of any ownCloud support plan or an ownCloud Enterprise Licensee, please get in touch with your sales representative.

  2. If you are a member of the community, you can step up to maintain the platform you still need support for. We are glad to lend a hand. Get in touch with us on devel@owncloud.org or #owncloud-client-dev on irc.freenode.net. Supporting an older version will involved packaging and patches to the source code.