PowerShell Core Support Lifecycle
Microsoft has updated the life cycle of software to the Modern Lifecycle Policy. The short answer is: faster, more frequent updates mean that version support is shorter. This makes sense in today’s agile software development environment. Instead of a three-year cycle for applications, and an additional 10+ years of support, the new agile process of frequent updates ensures that products get constant and continual updates and improvements.
PowerShell Core support lifecycle has also adapted this new modern way of thinking. As Microsoft and the Open Source community update PowerShell Core with: new features, bug fixes, and general overall improvements, the older versions fall out of favor. These improvements are key to empowering customers and provide a more stable, robust platform to manage and administrate customers environments.
The slight downside to this is, you need to rethink your paradigm of updating. Everyone should get into the habit of updating PowerShell Core often. Every six months isn’t an overly aggressive schedule, but one that you do need to start planning. With the timeline established, there is now predictability, not complete guessing as to when or if an update will be released. While the product group does target specific dates, they reserve the choice to ensure the product is ready, even if the date slips sooner or later than the original announced date.
Overall, this new more predicable timeline allows all of us to plan better for the future and for the upgrade process. I hope that you’ll continue to change your thoughts around paradigm shifts that occur with every generational change within the IT field. Thank you.
Mike