The Joomla! Development Plan

The next Long Term Release (LTR) of Joomla! will be Joomla! 3.5, scheduled for release in July 2013.

The Present and Beyond

Joomla! 2.5* - LTR - Released January 2012 (Developer Community support ends July 2013).

Joomla! 3.0 - STR - Planned Release July 2012 (Developer Community support ends February 2013).

Joomla! 3.1 - STR - Planned Release January 2013 (Developer Community support ends August 2013).

Joomla! 3.5 - LTR - Planned Release July 2013 (Developer Community support ends January 2015).

Previous Versions of Joomla!

Joomla! 1.0 - LTR - Redundant (Developer Community support ended in July 2009).

Joomla! 1.5 - LTR - Current (Developer Community support ends April 2012).

Joomla! 1.6 - STR - Released January 2011 (Developer Community support ends August 2011).

Joomla! 1.7 -STR - Released July 2011 (Developer Community support ends February 2012).

Source: Joomla! Developer Network.

Can you see a pattern?

The development pattern for Joomla! is now two STRs (example, 1.6 and 1.7) followed by one LTR (example, 2.5).

Short Term Releases are so-called because the period of Developer Community support is for a shorter period than the LTRs.

Long Term Release support periods will not only be longer but also cut across the period of support offered to STRs.

With effect from Joomla! 1.6 the Joomla! Development Cycle is time-based, whereas before Joomla! 1.6 it had been a feature-based Development Cycle.

There will be a new Long Term Release (LTR) made available every 18 months, the next one being 3.5 in July 2013.

A Long Term Release will always be labelled as a .5 release (for example, 2.5, 3.5 and so on).