We have lift-off – the launch of Umbraco 10. Launched in June 2022, Umbraco 10 is the most streamlined version of the CMS yet released. It offers users an unprecedented experience, compatibility, intuitive use and great end product.
The new release of Umbraco 10 has brought Umbraco to .NET 6 and ASP.NET Core 6. Launched in June 2022, Umbraco 10 is the most streamlined version of the CMS yet released. It offers users an unprecedented experience, compatibility, intuitive use and great end product. The new release of Umbraco 10 has brought Umbraco to .NET 6 and ASP.NET Core 6. This major upgrade comes just eight months after the launch of Umbraco 9. Previously, because of the longer gaps between new versions of Umbraco, it meant that upgrading to a new major version could be a considerable undertaking – with numerous breaking changes and migration of data, coding and more. This shorter upgrade lapse time will hope to dispense with this.
Umbraco 10 is a long-term support (LTS) release and all Umbraco CMS LTS releases will be aligned and compatible with the LTS releases of Microsoft .NET. So, you can have your entire platform supported for a longer period of time. The next LTS will be Umbraco 13 in 2023 and will support .NET 8 LTS. Support for Umbraco 10 runs until 2025.
The story so far
For the uninitiated, Umbraco is an open-source, cross-platform CMS for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets. Umbraco was developed by Niels Hartvig in 1999 and released as open-source software in 2005. It has come to be regarded as one of the leading .NET-based open-source CMS systems.
Umbraco now employs 105 people, growing from its first employee in 2007 – Niels Hartvig – to two employees in 2008 – and so on! It secured new majority owners in 2021, when the Swedish growth investor, Monterro decided to invest in the company.
As well as releasing Umbraco 2.0 as an open-source CMS in 2005, the company also held its first Umbraco Developers conference. The original Codegarden was attended by 23 developers in the first year, by 2017 this number had increased to 500 attendees from around the world. Like the success of Umbraco, Codegarden has continued to grow, with 2400 people attending the first virtual Codegarden in 2021.
Developing a strong community has been a big part of the success of Umbraco, and as part of this, the company introduced its Most Valued People (MVP) awards in 2007 for its community members. In addition, by 2017 pull requests had grown to 296 and this figure was almost 700 in 2018.
Umbraco became Umbraco A/S in 2014, a private limited company. And in 2015 Umbraco Cloud was introduced. In since its launch, active installs of Umbraco have increased year-on-year, by 2019 they hit half a million, and by 2021, that number had increased to 731,438, and is still growing.
Updates incoming
All tech has a finite lifespan and updates, and upgrades are constantly bombarding us with the newest, the latest. You often hear the cry in a busy office of “More updates!”, for the many applications, tools and web management systems we employ in our day-to-day lives. But there are huge advantages to staying ahead of the game, by ensuring you have the latest possible versions available as your principal tools and software, and web-based CMS applications.
As new software applications are implemented, they will of course in time become the dominant, popular brand. Any new versions must also consider both end of life (EOL) and LTS issues. Older Umbraco versions will eventually become obsolete, as the ongoing tech cycle moves on. This will mean those still on Umbraco 7 will become unsupported, while Umbraco 8 will still be supported until 2025 – but developers need to have a plan in place to upgrade as it’s important that it’s safe and easy to use. Umbraco currently release small, frequent updates and additions on a fixed schedule every six weeks (minor releases) and ensure to fix bugs and release the bug fixes as soon as possible (patch releases). Starting from Umbraco version 10, every fourth major version – so every two years – will be an LTS version. As .NET 6 is an LTS release, so is Umbraco 10.
Support and Security Phases
Beginning in January 2022, Umbraco is now much easier to update. Umbraco has introduced two phases of support for its major releases – the Support phase and the Security phase. In Support, Umbraco fixes bugs, regressions and security issues and new projects can be created in Umbraco Cloud from this version. This phase is nine months from the first release, extended to 24 months for LTS-majors. It includes fixing regression issues on the last three minor releases, adding compatibility patches (to ensure new server-, browser-, and .NET Framework versions are supported) and continuing to review issue reports and patches. This will be done with stability in mind, so there will be no new features, only ‘critical’ fixes, with relevant security notifications and updates provided. After the Support phase, the release will go into the Security phase, after which Umbraco will only fix security issues. The security phase lasts nine months and is extended to 12 months for LTS-majors. At the end of the Security phase, the major is considered End Of Life (EOL), it is no longer supported, and Umbraco no longer recommends using it.
In terms of legacy support, Umbraco 9 is in Support phase until 16 September 2022, with an additional three months of Security phase. This will end on 16 December 2022, when it is considered EOL. The last minor releases to Umbraco 8 and Umbraco 7 are also considered as LTS too. Umbraco 8.18 will be the final minor version of Umbraco 8 and was released on 24 February 2022. This version will be supported for two full years, plus an additional year of the Security phase. EOL for Umbraco 8 is February 2025.
Umbraco 7 EOL
For Umbraco 7, the last minor (7.15) was released in July 2019 and the Security phase started in July 2021. EOL for Umbraco 7 is September 2023. To create continuity with its previous commitments for Umbraco 7, it has extended the Security phase for an extra 24 months.
New and improved
At Titan Webtech, we’re registered partners and certified experts in Umbraco. We provide development, technical support, guidance and advice not just across Cheshire and North Wales, but throughout the UK. We manage bespoke software solutions for web-based applications and provide digital management services to all kinds of businesses and clients.
There are multiple areas where Umbraco 10 has seen a great deal of improvement and it provides clients with all they need to create a powerful, user-friendly websites. Its flexible building blocks and rich integration possibilities. This allows developers to create truly bespoke web solutions that are easy to use and manage for content editors, as an intuitive, precise user interface. From this release forward, a new major will be released every six months, aligned with the .NET release schedule, to ensure that Umbraco developers can always run with the latest available technology. Umbraco 10 will have full support for both Windows and Unix-based platforms. Since its launch, it has also become the default version for new projects created on Umbraco Cloud. It makes sense to work with a third-party provider, such as Titan Webtech, which has the experience of all versions of Umbraco and can help you migrate to the latest version.
As of 2022, more than 730,000 websites worldwide have embraced Umbraco technology. Why not get in touch with us today, to find out more about the latest edition of Umbraco and see the difference in CMS efficiency, flexibility and performance.
