Every year, there is a new release of the latest .NET SDK & runtime, incorporating a year of development, innovation, and improvements.

From .NET 5, this has been in November.

The releases are designated as either STS (Standard Term Support) or LTS (Long-Term Support).

The even-numbered versions are LTS versions, and the odd-numbered versions are LTS.

The current situation is as follows:

Version Date Released Type End Of Support
.NET 8 November 14, 2023 LTS November 10, 2026
.NET 9 November 12, 2024 STS November 10, 2026

This means that both will be fully supported until November 2026.

Previously, the STS versions had shorter support cycles, which created:

  1. A perception that it was of lower quality
  2. A window between versions where the STS was not supported

This inadvertently created a reluctance to use STS versions in production.

Now, the STS support period has been increased to 24 months, which means that STS and LTS versions will be fully supported in sync.

Note, however, that this policy does not apply to some of the components of the framework.

TLDR

The support cycle for STS versions has been increased to 24 months.

Happy hacking!