Rails 3 is out, but will they still support Rails 2.3.x?

Question

Rails 3 is out and every one is excited (etc etc).

However, I'm not ready to update to it yet for a couple reasons:

• Not all gems I use are supported.
• Just finally got my head around 2.3.x.
• My client expects software that is reliable.

So, right now I'm running 2.3.5 and will be upgrading to 2.3.8 soon. But what about any security patches or parallel feature updates that 3 might get? Will there be a 2.3.9? Will there be a 2.4? Does anyone know?

Answer 1

You can see from the commit log that there are still commits to the 2.3 branch eventhough it's not as active as the 3.x branch. 37signals are still using 2.3 on many of their apps that's why you will see many patches/commits coming from Jeremy, one of 37signals employee. I don't think they will make any major changes that will break your apps though.

Answer 2

Judging by the lastest commit to 2.3.9pre ("preparing for 2.3.9") and the open tickets (none), it looks like Rails 2.3.9 will be released any day now.

Answer 3

Looking on https://rails.lighthouseapp.com/projects/8994-ruby-on-rails there is a 2.3.10 milestone, so they will at least have that.

Answer 4

Actually upgrade to 3.0 doesn't break that much. There's few gotchas, but they are mostly very well documented. Most common gems are already compatibile with rails 3 (at least the newest beta versions). I am sure, that by the time you would finish upgrading all of those would have stable relases.

I would go rather for 3.0 instead of going for an upgrade in 2.3.x branch.

It is very crucial to have lots of well placed tests for your application. This way you can easily see if anything breaks.

I found much many problems after switching to Ruby 1.9.x, then after going from Rails 2.3.x to Rails 3. Actually now I am using REE 1.8.7 with Rails3.