June 26, 2012

Delphi Supported Versions List

From time to time people ask whether their version of Delphi is still supported. You can find the list of officially supported versions at: http://support.embarcadero.com/article/37740

This is also good information to refer to if you need help justifying an upgrade to a newer version. For example, a customer on Delphi 5 recently asked if we plan to update Delphi 5 for Windows 7 development. When you look at the chart below, you can see that there won't be further updates to that version and that upgrading to Delphi XE2 (which also gives access to select earlier versions back to Delphi 7)  is the way to go for the best Windows 7 support.

I'll paste in the Delphi section of the supported versions list as of today (June 2012) but you should visit the link above to see the latest version in the future.

Product
Active
Passive
De-Supported
Delphi XE2
September 2011


Delphi XE
September 2010


Delphi 2010
August 2009
May 2011

Delphi 2009
September 2008
September 2009
May 2011
Delphi 2007
March 2007
December 2008

Delphi 2006
December 2005
April 2008
August 2009
Delphi 2005
October 2004
January 2006
December 2008
Delphi 8 for Microsoft .NET
December 2003
December 2005
December 2008
Delphi 7
August 2002
December 2005
December 2008
Delphi 6 and Earlier

August 2002
August 2003

There's also a link at the top of that page to definitions that describe each support phase. Here's a copy of that info:

Lifecycle Periods are defined as follows:

Active Support
  • Technical Support will open cases and assist customers with issues
  • Version is eligible for Hotfixes, Patches, and Service Packs
  • Active Support will generally be provided for at least one Version within a Major Release Family.
Passive Support
  • Technical Support will open cases and assist customers with issues
  • Version is NOT eligible for Hotfixes, Patches, and Service Packs
  • To receive corrections to Software Failures, customers must upgrade to another Version, within the same Major Release Family, that is under Active Support
De-supported
  • Technical Support will open cases, but may not be able to assist customers with issues that are specific to the de-supported version

When the descriptions above say that a version is no longer eligible for hotfixes, patches and service packs, it means there won't be further updates on that version of the product. Any hotfixes or updates that have already been published still remain available from our web site. 

For more information on the latest version of Delphi and more reasons to upgrade, click here.

3 comments:

Larry Hengen said...

Since you have elaborated on what versions of Delphi are supported, perhaps you should also define what you mean by support.

I have submitted numerous QC reports that have not even been commented on, and remain in the reported state. When QC items don't get addressed in a timely manner, then what constitutes 'support'?

See Tpersistent

Jolyon Smith said...

Also saying that something will get supported in a particular way isn't the same as it ACTUALLY being supported in that way.

When was the most recent hot-fix, patch or other update for XE ?

Tim said...

Good questions.

After a new version is released, there are usually several big updates made available(and some smaller hotfixes that may not fit into the schedule of the larger updates, if necessary). Those usually happen in the first 9 months or so after the new version is released.

What I mean when I say Support is a combination of what is on that page and http://support.embarcadero.com/annual. That is having support team members who can help with that version of the product and that premium level support customers can get fixes for critical issues on that version of the product if necessary. It doesn't mean there will be more bug fix updates or hotfixes made available or that all reported bugs will be fixed.