Sunsetting Qt 5

[Justin Zobel]

On 30/11/24 21:21, Albert Astals Cid wrote:
>> Additionally, several recent attempts to update our Windows Qt 5.15 images,
>> based on MSVC 2019, have all failed due to various different changes (with
>> the build of MPFR breaking for reasons unknown - likely MSys2 updates - and
>> QXMPP failing to build yet again....) which is not a tenable position for a
>> "CI supported" platform.
>>
>> That removal is proposed to be essentially immediately (ie. now).
>>
>> Subsequent to that I would also like to forbid any further feature releases
>> to be made of Qt 5 software following the end of this calendar year, to
>> clearly signal to the involved developers that they need to work on getting
>> a Qt 6 release out. Patch releases to resolve bugs and security issues
>> could continue to be made for a period of 6 more months at most.
> This is not acceptable.
>
> Qt 5.0 was released in December 2012
>
> We introduced KDE Frameworks 5 in July 2014
> https://kde.org/announcements/frameworks/5/5.0.0/
>
> We stopped accepting kdelibs4 based apps in the "was-KDE-Gears-back-then" in
> December 2017
> https://community.kde.org/Schedules/Applications/17.12_Release_Schedule
>
>
>
> Qt 6.0 was released in December 2020
>
> We introduced KDE Frameworks 6 in February 2024
>
> If we do the diff against our KF6 release we should accept KF5 apps in KDE
> Gear at least until 2027, if you count since Qt relase we need to accept them
> until end of 2025.
>
> Giving 1 month of heads up is not ok.

Look I'm usually the one pushing to move onto new things but I agree 
this is a bit short notice.

KDE Frameworks 6 was release on February 28 of this year, so closing it 
off as of the end of the year isn't even a full 12 months.

I'm all for retiring old unmaintained projects but the big projects 
probably need 1-2 years from (Feb 28) to get a new release out I think.

A list of projects still using Qt5 and their status would go a long way 
to helping potential developers realise that app xyz isn't ported or has 
an in progress port that might need help.

> Cheers,
>    Albert
>
>> Any application that does not have a port underway as at the point where
>> feature releases become forbidden is proposed to be archived as
>> unmaintained at that time, with the same fate befalling applications that
>> have an unreleased port branch on 1 July 2025.
>>
>> Should at any point post-31 December 2024 there become issues that make Qt
>> 5 CI unsustainable for the remaining platforms (Linux and FreeBSD) then we
>> would discontinue CI for them at that time as well with minimal notice
>> being given in advance.
>>
>> Note that while this may seem a little "over the top" it is necessary to
>> reduce the maintenance burden and cost of keeping Qt 5 alive (for an ever
>> decreasing number of applications) on the maintainers of central
>> infrastructure (such as myself).
>>
>> Regards,
>> Ben
>
>
>