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* chore: add disclaimer to release timeline * Update docs/tutorial/electron-timelines.md Co-authored-by: David Sanders <dsanders11@ucsbalum.com> --------- Co-authored-by: Shelley Vohr <shelley.vohr@gmail.com> Co-authored-by: David Sanders <dsanders11@ucsbalum.com>
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Electron Releases
Electron frequently releases major versions alongside every other Chromium release. This document focuses on the release cadence and version support policy. For a more in-depth guide on our git branches and how Electron uses semantic versions, check out our Electron Versioning doc.
Timeline
| Electron | Alpha | Beta | Stable | EOL | Chrome | Node | Supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29.0.0 | 2023-Dec-07 | 2024-Jan-24 | 2024-Feb-20 | 2024-Aug-20 | M122 | v18.19 | ✅ |
| 28.0.0 | 2023-Oct-11 | 2023-Nov-06 | 2023-Dec-05 | 2024-Jun-11 | M120 | v18.18 | ✅ |
| 27.0.0 | 2023-Aug-17 | 2023-Sep-13 | 2023-Oct-10 | 2024-Apr-16 | M118 | v18.17 | ✅ |
| 26.0.0 | 2023-Jun-01 | 2023-Jun-27 | 2023-Aug-15 | 2024-Feb-20 | M116 | v18.16 | ✅ |
| 25.0.0 | 2023-Apr-10 | 2023-May-02 | 2023-May-30 | 2023-Dec-05 | M114 | v18.15 | 🚫 |
| 24.0.0 | 2023-Feb-09 | 2023-Mar-07 | 2023-Apr-04 | 2023-Oct-10 | M112 | v18.14 | 🚫 |
| 23.0.0 | 2022-Dec-01 | 2023-Jan-10 | 2023-Feb-07 | 2023-Aug-15 | M110 | v18.12 | 🚫 |
| 22.0.0 | 2022-Sep-29 | 2022-Oct-25 | 2022-Nov-29 | 2023-Oct-10 | M108 | v16.17 | 🚫 |
| 21.0.0 | 2022-Aug-04 | 2022-Aug-30 | 2022-Sep-27 | 2023-Apr-04 | M106 | v16.16 | 🚫 |
| 20.0.0 | 2022-May-26 | 2022-Jun-21 | 2022-Aug-02 | 2023-Feb-07 | M104 | v16.15 | 🚫 |
| 19.0.0 | 2022-Mar-31 | 2022-Apr-26 | 2022-May-24 | 2022-Nov-29 | M102 | v16.14 | 🚫 |
| 18.0.0 | 2022-Feb-03 | 2022-Mar-03 | 2022-Mar-29 | 2022-Sep-27 | M100 | v16.13 | 🚫 |
| 17.0.0 | 2021-Nov-18 | 2022-Jan-06 | 2022-Feb-01 | 2022-Aug-02 | M98 | v16.13 | 🚫 |
| 16.0.0 | 2021-Sep-23 | 2021-Oct-20 | 2021-Nov-16 | 2022-May-24 | M96 | v16.9 | 🚫 |
| 15.0.0 | 2021-Jul-20 | 2021-Sep-01 | 2021-Sep-21 | 2022-May-24 | M94 | v16.5 | 🚫 |
| 14.0.0 | -- | 2021-May-27 | 2021-Aug-31 | 2022-Mar-29 | M93 | v14.17 | 🚫 |
| 13.0.0 | -- | 2021-Mar-04 | 2021-May-25 | 2022-Feb-01 | M91 | v14.16 | 🚫 |
| 12.0.0 | -- | 2020-Nov-19 | 2021-Mar-02 | 2021-Nov-16 | M89 | v14.16 | 🚫 |
| 11.0.0 | -- | 2020-Aug-27 | 2020-Nov-17 | 2021-Aug-31 | M87 | v12.18 | 🚫 |
| 10.0.0 | -- | 2020-May-21 | 2020-Aug-25 | 2021-May-25 | M85 | v12.16 | 🚫 |
| 9.0.0 | -- | 2020-Feb-06 | 2020-May-19 | 2021-Mar-02 | M83 | v12.14 | 🚫 |
| 8.0.0 | -- | 2019-Oct-24 | 2020-Feb-04 | 2020-Nov-17 | M80 | v12.13 | 🚫 |
| 7.0.0 | -- | 2019-Aug-01 | 2019-Oct-22 | 2020-Aug-25 | M78 | v12.8 | 🚫 |
| 6.0.0 | -- | 2019-Apr-25 | 2019-Jul-30 | 2020-May-19 | M76 | v12.14.0 | 🚫 |
| 5.0.0 | -- | 2019-Jan-22 | 2019-Apr-23 | 2020-Feb-04 | M73 | v12.0 | 🚫 |
| 4.0.0 | -- | 2018-Oct-11 | 2018-Dec-20 | 2019-Oct-22 | M69 | v10.11 | 🚫 |
| 3.0.0 | -- | 2018-Jun-21 | 2018-Sep-18 | 2019-Jul-30 | M66 | v10.2 | 🚫 |
| 2.0.0 | -- | 2018-Feb-21 | 2018-May-01 | 2019-Apr-23 | M61 | v8.9 | 🚫 |
:::info Official support dates may change
Electron's official support policy is the latest 3 stable releases. Our stable release and end-of-life dates are determined by Chromium, and may be subject to change. While we try to keep our planned release and end-of-life dates frequently updated here, future dates may change if affected by upstream scheduling changes, and may not always be accurately reflected.
See Chromium's public release schedule for definitive information about Chromium's scheduled release dates.
:::
Notes:
- The
-alpha.1,-beta.1, andstabledates are our solid release dates. - We strive for weekly alpha/beta releases, but we often release more than scheduled.
- All dates are our goals but there may be reasons for adjusting the stable deadline, such as security bugs.
Historical changes:
- Since Electron 5, Electron has been publicizing its release dates (see blog post).
- Since Electron 6, Electron major versions have been targeting every other Chromium major version. Each Electron stable should happen on the same day as Chrome stable (see blog post).
- Since Electron 16, Electron has been releasing major versions on an 8-week cadence in accordance to Chrome's change to a 4-week release cadence (see blog post).
- Electron temporarily extended support for Electron 22 until October 10, 2023, to support an extended end-of-life for Windows 7/8/8.1
Version support policy
The latest three stable major versions are supported by the Electron team. For example, if the latest release is 6.1.x, then the 5.0.x as well as the 4.2.x series are supported. We only support the latest minor release for each stable release series. This means that in the case of a security fix, 6.1.x will receive the fix, but we will not release a new version of 6.0.x.
The latest stable release unilaterally receives all fixes from main,
and the version prior to that receives the vast majority of those fixes
as time and bandwidth warrants. The oldest supported release line will receive
only security fixes directly.
Chromium version support
:::info Chromium release schedule
Chromium's public release schedule is here.
:::
Electron targets Chromium even-number versions, releasing every 8 weeks in concert with Chromium's 4-week release schedule. For example, Electron 26 uses Chromium 116, while Electron 27 uses Chromium 118.
Node.js version support
Electron upgrades its main branch to even-number versions of Node.js when they enter Active LTS. The schedule
is as follows:
As a rule, stable branches of Electron do not receive Node.js upgrades after they have been cut.
If Electron has recently updated its main branch to a new major version of Node.js, the next stable
branch to be cut will be released with the new version.
Patch upgrades of Node that contain significant security or bug fixes, and are submitted more than 2 weeks prior to a stable release date, will be accepted into an Electron alpha or beta release branch.
Minor upgrades of Node that contain significant security or bug fixes, and are submitted more than 2 weeks prior to a stable release date may be accepted into an Electron alpha or beta release branch on a case-by-case basis. These requests will be reviewed and voted on by the Releases Working Group, to ensure minimal disruption for developers who may be consuming alpha or beta releases.
Breaking API changes
When an API is changed or removed in a way that breaks existing functionality, the previous functionality will be supported for a minimum of two major versions when possible before being removed. For example, if a function takes three arguments, and that number is reduced to two in major version 10, the three-argument version would continue to work until, at minimum, major version 12. Past the minimum two-version threshold, we will attempt to support backwards compatibility beyond two versions until the maintainers feel the maintenance burden is too high to continue doing so.
End-of-life
When a release branch reaches the end of its support cycle, the series will be deprecated in NPM and a final end-of-support release will be made. This release will add a warning to inform that an unsupported version of Electron is in use.
These steps are to help app developers learn when a branch they're using becomes unsupported, but without being excessively intrusive to end users.
If an application has exceptional circumstances and needs to stay
on an unsupported series of Electron, developers can silence the
end-of-support warning by omitting the final release from the app's
package.json devDependencies. For example, since the 1-6-x series
ended with an end-of-support 1.6.18 release, developers could choose
to stay in the 1-6-x series without warnings with devDependency of
"electron": 1.6.0 - 1.6.17.