Last week, we’ve conducted a user poll to get hard data for a decision to drop support for Java 1.3 for the Apache XML Graphics project (Batik & FOP). The results are quite clear: we’re safe to drop support for Java 1.3. That’s good news since it helps us concentrate on more important aspects of the project. The survey also revealed how many people are still on Java 1.4 and how many are already using Java 6.
We will now have to take a closer look at the question, if we should directly skip to Java 1.5 as some suggested. Personally, I’m a little hesitant, since I know a lot of people who are still stuck with Java 1.4 for the moment. They all want to migrate to at least 1.5, of course, but that requires careful preparation in complex environments. Better stick to Java 1.4 until at least summer 2008 when the end-of-life process at Sun ends for Java 1.4.
