Will Magento 1.x end of life affect website running?

[elsa_lai]

Hi, I'm new to Magento.

I saw someone said "end of life" of Magento v1.x.
Since now the version of our website on cPanel is 1.9.3.7, will it affect on the website running?

And I would like to ask: What means the end of Magento 1.x life? Does it mean any website with v.1 will be shut off or won't receive any update? If it means no more update, we still could keep our website run normally, right?

[Damian Culotta]

Hi @elsa_lai,

I will try to answer that question with information you can check too.

Magento 1, by default, can work with PHP 5.6 but not with PHP 7.0 or higher.

There is a community module that will allow you to use PHP 7.0 (I don't remember right know what about PHP 7.1 but I guess it won't work) (you should check that).

Why is this so important? Because: http://php.net/supported-versions.php

PHP 5.6 and 7.0 won't get any kind of support/security upgrade next year. This doesn't mean your store will stop working.

If you can maintain a server with the right versions of software (but it will under your responsibility to use outdated php versions) you will be able to continue working.

Also, you should know that Magento 1 Commerce (formerly known as Enterprise) will have official support until June 2020. You can check that info here: https://magento.com/legal/terms/enterprise-agreement

So you could expect, as Enterprise client, that your Magento 1 will be able to sort, in some ways, some part of the PHP versions issue (this isn't an official information but we can think that becasue the End Of Life of PHP).

As you said, what it means is that Magento 1 Open Source (formerly known as Community) won't recieve any kind of update. If you can build a server with the right versions for your stack you should be able to run the store (but I can't recommend that because security)

But... at this point you can start to plan the transition from Magento 1 to Magento 2. I think is a great moment. Knowing when Magento will drop Magento 1 support and also knowing the PHP EOL you should be working on the next big step of your store.

(my 2 cents)

[elsa_lai]

Hi @Damian Culotta

Thanks for replying.

So according to what you said, the website on cPanel will still work normally after the Magento 1.x and PHP 5.6/7.0 stop support/security upgrade, but we're better to update the system from Magento 1 to Magento 2 for the security, right?

[Damian Culotta · Accepted solution]

Hi @elsa_lai,

If you can maintain the software stack (Php, Mysql, etc) you should be able to use the current store. Short answer is "Yes".

But is important to remember that you won't get any security update on Php (after the EOL of those versions) or Magento (official security fixes after the EOL).

If I were the person who has to choose I will start to think and plan how the transition will be to Magento 2. If you can start to plan (at least) you should be ready for that moment.

[elsa_lai]

Hi @Damian Culotta,

I'll start to try Magento 2.x and consider how to transfer the Magento from 1.9 to 2.2.
Thanks for kindly answer!

[Damian Culotta]

Good!

Maybe in the future you could share the experience to help others with the transition.

[shiva108]

Hi @Damian Culotta !

I heard that EOL for Magento 1.x is planned for end 2018. Is that right ?

[Damian Culotta]

Hi @shiva108,

That isn't correct.

If you take a look at https://www.magento.com/legal/terms you'll find the link "Magento Software Lifecycle Policy" under MAGENTO COMMERCE (ON PREMISES).

The current link to the file is: https://www.magento.com/sites/default/files/magento-software-lifecycle-policy.pdf

The information is valid for Magento Enterprise and/or Commerce only.

This year (2018) only Magento Commerce 2.0 has reach the EOL.

In 2019 Magento Commerce 2.1 and 2.2 will reach the EOL date.

Magento 1.13.x and 1.14.x will reach the EOL date on June 2020. (Check the details on that document)

[shiva108]

Thanks @Damian Culotta for your reply. That's for the Commerce version.

And what about M1 Community edition ?

[Damian Culotta]

Hi @shiva108,

The Community Edition (aka Open Source) is provided under the GPL3 license: https://github.com/magento/magento2/blob/2.2-develop/LICENSE.txt

There isn't official and/or compromissed support in terms of business and legal obligations (I guess).

Since Magento Commerce (formerly known as Enterprise) is built over Magento Open Source you can think (well... I think) Magento will need to provide the core changes to allow the Enterprise edition to continue working until that day.

I don't know if those changes will be moved to the Community Edition (I'm talking about Magento 1, of course; is completely different with Magento 2 beacuse the Open Source edition code is on Github) but I would like to believe that will happen.