If Elgg is discontinued how long could i use the software?

If Elgg is discontinued how long could i use the software?

  • You asked it already.

    And answer is:

    Even if the further development of Elgg would be stopped at some point (by the current developers), you could still continue to use Elgg "as it is" at that point.

  • No i am asking how long it would continue to work after it is hypothetically discontinued. 

  • You can use Elgg unlimited because an open source + GPL 2 License

  • but wouldn't future versions of servers stop supporting it after awhile?

  • @Austin

    There are several hosting companies that still support PHP 5.3 so probably you could run your elgg site even after it is discontinued.

  • wouldn't future versions of servers stop supporting it after awhile?

    Yes, that could happen, though PHP and MySQL are still running decade old applications. The bad news is those unmaintained apps are full of XSS and other vulnerabilities!

  • so how would someone get around that if their server no longer supports php 5.3?

  • plus couldn't you just change the php version on your web server?

  • I'm newer to this side of the web-world so forgive my question if need be. 

    @Austin: I'm not sure I understand what you're really asking. I understand the "how long will the code work after the last Elgg developer abandons the project" question. I don't think I understand the " Why are you asking/What are you trying to sort out for the future?" reasons behind it. 

    My thoughts are I can always go and buy an older computer and run Windows 98. So "Windows 98 is still a functional piece of software." There are no more patches or security fixes. I have to find the correct pieces of hardware and drivers to even use with 98, but I could make it run. (And in model railroading there are several pieces of software that you have to do this to use them.)

    So my guess is after the last developer makes the last commit Elgg will run on that hardware "forever". Forever would mean an ever increasing need to find a host that supports an ever growing older set of base requirements (ie. whatever the last version of PHP that the core uses). I would venture you could even build your own server and host the last version of Elgg yourself and it will run "forever". But just like my Windows 98 example the security issues might become extreme. Maybe some future development in browser technology makes viewing older coded sites hard. Who knows.

    For a more Elgg-centric answer look at the plugins that no longer work with 2+. I can make them work by using older versions of Elgg, with all the associated changes.

    Hence my question above, I hear what you are asking about - but I don't understand what you're looking for? I would like to know for my own sake too as I'm learning quite a bit.

  • if you want to run old software, you need to run the old versions of all the other software that are needed to support the particular software you are interested in. as steve said, you can run old versions of PHP and MySQL etc. - so elgg (or any other app) would still work even if no-one was supporting it any more - but you will find the old software has unfixed bugs and security holes in it.

    also, the rest of the web will have moved on and you may find that modern browsers don't play nicely with your old software/website and that other issues arise. so basically, if the software was no longer supported, you would either need to find a way to update the software to ensure it maintains full functionality or just use something else. if the software was no longer supported, that would probably be because it was no longer useful and that would probably be because something else came along that was dramatically better - in which case it would make sense to switch anyway.