Skip to content
New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Create definitions.md #13

Closed
wants to merge 3 commits into from
+22 −0
Closed

Create definitions.md #13

Changes from 1 commit
Commits
Show all changes
3 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
2cbcea1
Create definitions.md
santosomar Jan 24, 2024
13beaa3
Update taxonomy/definitions.md
santosomar Apr 10, 2024
6fdf592
Update definitions.md
santosomar Apr 10, 2024
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
21 changes: 21 additions & 0 deletions taxonomy/definitions.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
# Glossary of Terms: Understanding Lifecycle Phases in Technology

This document aims to clearly define key terms related to the lifecycle of software and hardware products, providing a reference for understanding various phases from sales or creation to support termination.
santosomar marked this conversation as resolved.
Show resolved Hide resolved

**Note**: With open source software or hardware, there is typically no "end-of-sales".

## 1. Software End-of-Life (SEoL) or Software End-of-Sales (SEoS)

**Definition:** Software End-of-Life refers to the stage in a software product's lifecycle where it is no longer sold.
Copy link
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I think we need to clarify somewhere that those only apply to in regards to the entity making the statement. There is an aftermarket for some things... (same applies to all definitions).

Copy link
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Also: I would prefer to use "End-of-Sales" as definition point, if we are defining it based on the "sold" attribute.

Copy link
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

We need to communicate clearly, whether EoL and EoS is the same. IMHO it is not.

Copy link

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

EoS doesn't really apply to Open Source software and we often mark something as EoL.
So, either those are two distinct things (EoS / EoL) or the attribute "sold" should not be used.

In other words: I do agree with @tschmidtb51 that these are two distinct things.


## 2. Hardware End-of-Life (HEoL) or Hardware End-of-Sales (HEoS)

**Definition:** Hardware End-of-Life signifies the phase where a piece of hardware (like a server, router, or computer component) is no longer sold by its manufacturer.

## 3. End-of-Software Maintenance or Security Vulnerability Support
Copy link
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I think those are two distinct things:

  1. End of Software Maintenance: No bugfixes, no new feature
  2. End of Security vulnerability Support: no more security fixes

This also reflects what is currently done by many open source projects (not backporting new features, but keeping security up-to-date for a while) and commercial products (e.g. Windows 10)


**Definition:** This term indicates the final phase of a software product’s lifecycle during which the developer ceases to provide maintenance services, including security patches, bug fixes, or any other form of software updates. Beyond this point, the software may become vulnerable to security risks as new threats emerge. However, a vendor may still support technical questions and may also investigate vulnerabilities in their products without providing a fix.

## 4. Last Date of Support (End-of-Support)
Copy link
Contributor Author

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

A comment was received to expand this title to "Last Date of Support ( LDoS ) or End-of-Support (EoS) Date"

Copy link

@shridarc shridarc Mar 14, 2024 •
edited
Loading

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Agree, This titles are better however shorter form EoS can get confused between End of Sale & End of Support, End of Service. If everyone agree we can use long form everywhere.

Copy link
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I think abbreviations will occur naturally - better we define them here. So that it is clear, who gets the acronym "EoS"...


**Definition:** The Last Date of Support, or End-of-Support, refers to the final date when all types of support, including technical, maintenance, and security updates, will be provided for a software or hardware product. After this date, the product is considered unsupported and may pose risks or operational inefficiencies for users.
Copy link
Contributor Author

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

A new item/definition that we should add is "Extended Support" as suggested in #15

Copy link

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

This defination mostly seen on Operating System, taking a try .. please review/update.
Term : End of Extended Support
Definition : Extended Support period is when only critical security are provided under special agreements and after End of Extended Support date there is no support is provided.

Copy link

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Similar to Extended Support, different segment may have a specialized term/definition. Can we allow Additional definition where a company/vendor/partner can put a custom information as text, URL ?

Copy link
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Similar to Extended Support, different segment may have a specialized term/definition. Can we allow Additional definition where a company/vendor/partner can put a custom information as text, URL ?

To be frank: That is a bad idea. A standard should cover most (if not all) use cases. Introducing a way to use own definitions will actually prevent people from leaving their old system behind and following the standard. As user, I want to have one dataset that is comparable, not hundreds and being forced to figure out the mapping between the companies definition and OpenEoX...

Copy link
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

This defination mostly seen on Operating System, taking a try .. please review/update. Term : End of Extended Support Definition : Extended Support period is when only critical security are provided under special agreements and after End of Extended Support date there is no support is provided.

I had the same idea. Maybe, we need to differentiate between standard and extended support? Or paid/unpaid?

Copy link

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I do agree with @tschmidtb51 that arbitrary definitions can lead to problems.

But there are products out there with at least three different "levels" of support and I suspect others might have more.
So, I do believe that the standard should allow for "a list of support definitions" the interpretation of which can be up to the user.

e.g. RedHat has "Full Support", "Maintenance Support", "Extended Update Support"
Ubuntu has something similar.

We need to be able to model those kinds of things and I don't think the standard should mandate how many levels are allowed.
"paid/unpaid" -> this seems more like an attribute on a support level.

Copy link
Contributor Author

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I agree. Unfortunately, sometimes the tools (i.e., CMDB, vuln mgmt, scanners) will be the ones making the "interpretation" of these definitions, so we may need to find a balance.