[Development] Deciding on VS2026 support versions

[Thiago Macieira]

Re: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/new-release-cadence-and-support-lifecycle-for-msvc-build-tools/

Visual Studio 2026 is decoupling the IDE from the release of the build tools, 
which is what matters to most of Qt (all except the VS add-in). They're also 
creating a sliding window of support with an every-other-November LTS release.

Do we want to keep support for LTS? That would mean supporting one VC++ 
toolchain more than we now do, for the first few years: from 2 to 3. If we 
start supporting the LTS, I recommend we only support the latest two plus the 
current, so we'll have:
* 2026-2027: toolchains 14.44 (VS2022), 14.50, sliding 14.51-53
* 2028-2029: toolchains 14.50, 14.54, sliding 14.55-57
* 2029-2030: toolchains 14.54, 14.58, sliding 14.59-61
etc.

There's an extra impact for the Qt LTS, which I invite the Qt Company folks to 
think about. I suggest you come up with a plan for your LTS releases that does 
not involve offering support to a toolchain Microsoft themselves do not. For 
example, the next+1 Qt LTS will be 6.14, to be released in October 2027 and to 
be supported until 2031, at which time both toolchains 14.50 and 14.54 will be 
out of upstream support.

-- 
Thiago Macieira - thiago.macieira (AT) intel.com
  Principal Engineer - Intel DCG - Platform & Sys. Eng.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/pkcs7-signature
Size: 5150 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/development/attachments/20251125/a30065b9/attachment.bin>