[QGIS-Developer] Status of 3.44 becoming LTR?

[Andreas Neumann]

Hi Greg,

With the switch from QGIS 3.x to 4.x we are kind of breaking the rules
around our otherwise strict schedules. This means that we skipped one
release altogether and this also means that 3.44.x will be the last 3.x
version and we decided it makes sense that the last 3.x version will
eventually become LTR. I hope this makes sense.

QGIS 4.x (currently 3.99.x) is still in early stages, but already usable.
Plugins will have to update to work in QGIS 4.x. So I would wait a couple
of 4.x releases to use it in production.

Greetings,
Andreas

Andreas

On Sun, 2 Nov 2025 at 16:44, Greg Troxel via QGIS-Developer <
qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:

> I saw 3.40.12 and updated pkgsrc, and the .12 being pretty high made me
> guess that there was a new LTR and I should look at it.  I went to read
>
>   https://qgis.org/resources/roadmap/
>
> and after staring at it for a long time, my take is:
>
>    - 3.44 is *going to be* LTR, but will not be blessed as such until
>      3.44.8 in February
>
>    - What is unusual is that LTR will be 3.44.8, not 3.46.4, because
>      there was no 3.46 in 2025-10, but we're still holding off until
>      February, because some blend of
>        + LTR promotion is always February
>        + LTR promotion of a future-LTR happens only when the next branch
>         .0 comes out.
>
>    - 4.2 will become LTR in 2026-10, which is out of cycle, and probably
>      we'll then see 4.8 in 2027-10 with LTRs happening on October
>      instead of February.  (That's an observation not a complaint.)
>
> If I'm confused a clue would be appreciated, and if 99.9% of the list
> was already super clear sorry for the noise.
>
> Separately, given that pkgsrc is on the fence between "latest release is
> fine" and "LTR is more stable and better", I should be planning to
> switch from 3.40.x to 3.44.x, and any time between now and just after
> the LTR-blessing of 3.44 on 2026-02-20 is a reasonable time to do that.
> (I am building 3.44.4 from source and it's halfway through.)
>
> My impression is that 3.44 is entirely stable and that for normal users
> (not trying to coordinate with other packaging systems in big
> organizations, and not having the LTS "running old code on purpose is
> good" outlook), there is no real reason to stay on 3.40.
>
> It is clear that I should try to package 4.0, or even 3.99, but as a
> separate/experimental package, to surface and resolve qt6 issues.
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-- 

--
Andreas Neumann
QGIS.ORG board member (treasurer)
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