Discussion drop support for php 7.2 and mysql 5.6
We have been dropping support for EOL php & mysql on ESR releases because that gives sites the option of delaying for another 6 months for just $120. So far we are not aware of any sites opting for the ESR for that reason but we are creating the option.
With 5.39 coming up we should consider whether we want to drop support for
php 7.2 (EOL Dec 2020) mysql 5.6 (EOL Feb 2021)
Note that historically supporting older versions of mysql has been low effort although some features are not supported. However, it might be holding us back from using new features
Supporting older versions of php has historically been more problematic as it has been at the expense of supporting newer versions. In particular we often find packages don't support latest and EOL versions.
So dropping support for older php versions is more helpful than older mysql versions.
Last ESR we considered dropping support for php 7.1 and mysql 5.6. We did the former and not the latter. At the time the stats were:
mysql 5.6 : 805 php 7.1 : 658. Maria DB 10.1 : 943
Currently they are mysql 5.6 : 603 php 7.2 : 2846 Maria DB 10.1 : 526
Based on those numbers I think it's clearly too early for php 7.2 and I would be OK targetting both for the NEXT ESR (5.45)