End of life for the Classic Editor: two years?

Or ‘After (whenever) you may have no choice but to use Gutenberg’?

You can remain on WordPress 4.9.x indefinitely. It will continue to receive security patches. We still patch 3.7 after all ??

Also ‘through 2021’ means until Dec 31 2021.

So when the release page (https://www.ads-software.com/download/releases/) says “None of these are safe to use, except the latest in the 5.0 series, which is actively maintained”, it’s wrong?

Ditto the codex saying (https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Supported_Versions) “The only current officially supported version is WordPress 5.0. Previous major releases before this may or may not get security updates as serious exploits are discovered”?

I asked about this back in the middle of 2015 (https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/what-versions-are-supported-and-for-how-long/) when the official answer was to confirm those statements, apart from the then current version being different.

If the policy has changed and it’s official that 4.9x will continue to get all necessary security patches, it might be good to drop the scary language and make that clear…

So when the release page (https://www.ads-software.com/download/releases/) says “None of these are safe to use, except the latest in the 5.0 series, which is actively maintained”, it’s wrong?

That should be amended. Whenever possible all security patches are back ported to 3.7 and usually when it’s not possible it is because something did not exist in WordPress in the earlier releases.

It should say something like this.

Whenever possible, security patches for versions going back to 3.7 will be maintained. But to guarantee the best security, please maintain the current version of WordPress. The current version is always guaranteed to be supported in functionality and security.

We’re not really the best at “policy” and “official statements” (hey, this is an opensource 100% volunteer project after all) but yes, 4.9.x will be safe to use for years to come.

yes, 4.9.x will be safe to use for years to come.

4.9.x will not be the only installation, as there are:

a theme and several plugins. They are not guaranteed to be backward compatible for years.
The minimum required PHP version will change, also in this case plugins and theme may become unusable (when you keep older plugins/theme for backward compatibility).

But the same is true for the Plugin Classic Editor. Plugins and themes will be developed more and more for Gutenberg, away from PHP towards React and co. Will this development be compatible with the Classic Editor?

Gutenberg itself will get deeper into everything else, plugins, themes, everything will become blocks. How does Classic Editor fit in? And then until the end of 2021? Never. And certainly not after 2021. But please correct me if I’m wrong about that, I’d wish for it.

That’s why I don’t understand the cheerful insouciance here that Classic Editor presents as a universal remedy.

The Classic Editor plugin won’t stop existing after Dec. 31, 2021, it will stop being supported officially by the WP.org team. To my understanding the community will continue to offer support if need be. Gutenberg is the official editor now and three years of official support for the Classic Editor plugin should be enough for Gutenberg to become massively adopted and supported by themes and plugins.

I don’t want to reopen the ‘we know better than our users’ debate, but the need for an alternative to Gutenberg is not going to go away.

Depends on how Gutenberg evolves and how it gets extended by plugins.

Keep the classic editor as an option as this new block editor is heavy, bloated and does not work.

This thread right here.

I love how the WP team is pretty much telling ALL OF US to ‘deal with it’.

WHY are they so enamoured with this block method? Is it because WIX uses it? I really don’t understand why this is even a thing?

What I take from all of this is: dust off your Dreamweaver and get ready to head back to the 90s to be able to work with a normal text editor. Gods help us all.

Or start working towards finding the next great CMS – which is not WP.

I really don’t like joomla…but I dislike 5.0 more. One thing is for sure: this is a boon for WP developers and web designers. Since the clients will be unable to use the new editor, the web support folks will get a lot more work.

SADLY, I am the web person for several of my remaining clients and I’m opening a new business. I will NOT have the time to deal with any of this. So all my dozen or so sites are screwed as well as my 4 clients who rely on me to keep their sites up. ;_;

I am really upset about this move by WP. I guess I’ll just have to let the sites sit and rot. I simply cannot redesign and/or move to a new platform.

I sincerely hope that a new platform will emerge from this and we’ll be able to move to it. This would be a great time to spin off WP into Classic WP and make 5.0 New WP and support both. How about have the new 5.0 a PAID one and keep classic going? Did no one think of that? If it’s money WP needs to have proper dev and support, then branch off. Then you’ll see just how great everyone thinks 5.0 is. Or not.

Sigh.

This is stressing me out.

Could you detail what in WP5.0 would require you to redesign your sites? I’m currently supporting about two dozen WP sites, none which broke due to version 5.0. Only a few will need the Classic Editor to accommodate users.

It’s been clear for the past two years that WordPress 5.0 would be a tremendous change to the edit process, that should have left plenty of time to inform clients and estimate the costs of updating the most sensitive sites.

I do not want this to be taken over as a ‘why it’s wrong to put Gutenberg into core and make it the default’ debate: everyone’s position on this is fixed. I wanted to know how long there was an alternative and I am very happy that it’s longer than it seemed.

ClassicPress is already taken as a name for ‘WordPress without Gutenberg’ of course…

For me, the Gutenberg editor is the main reason to STAY with the WordPress. The concept of block-based editor has been in my mind for about ten years already, but I never found any decent implementation in the cms field. The only one I found was in Sulu admin but looks years behind Gutenberg. And even technology stack behind Sulu is more compelling (Symfony3/4) in terms of extending database for more application like parts I’m totally enchanted with Gutenberg editor and opened possibilities.
Chapeau bas! You are great :).

I don’t want to reopen the ‘we know better than our users’ debate, but the need for an alternative to Gutenberg is not going to go away.

My customers voted on a complete file and db restore of their 4.x after 48 hours of WordPress 5.0 with Gutenberg.

The problem is not the replacement of an editor but the rework of workflows. If customers need more clicks than before then the replacement is just not good. Simple as that.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by gkahr78.

My customers voted on a complete file and db restore of their 4.x after 48 hours of WordPress 5.0 with Gutenberg.

None of my customers asked to stay with 4.9. Maybe it’s because I informed them 18 months ago about the incoming change and they’ve been testing and learning Gutenberg for the past 6 months or so. It was clear from the beginning that Gutenberg would eventually become part of the core. That left us with two years to handle clients’ reactionsm. People will obviously reject such a brutal, unprepared change; I consider it my job to explain the reasons of that change to my customers and to prepare them to make the transition as smooth as possible.

if the block editor actually made any type of positive difference for the average user, then it might be a good thing. It doesn’t. It’s a horrible thing that it’s going to be the default.

I feel like I am going back to netobjects fusion or something ridiculous.