General developer forum

That's right.  We need Nanogong or a similar audio recorder to work - at least as well as it did/does in M1.9.  I see a worrying number of forum posts about Hot Potatoes issues in M2.x as well.

Although we're not constrained by IT policy/purchasing many Moodle users probably are, with their IT department not being particularly Moodle-aware or perhaps even e-learning aware.

The other thing is I really like the old file structure.  I can use M1.9 as an easy-to-understand and logical Content Management System mapped to physical folders in predictable locations - and in conjunction with FTP as the tool for file uploads - far preferable to PHP methods for uploading large files like 30 minute audio interviews and video media.  I can point FTP accounts to specific course folders.  I can use symbolic linking to share large file libraries to multiple courses (or meta courses if I prefer).

M 1.9 is reliable, mature and robust and works with all my plugins, especially Nanogong, Hot Potatoes and Flexpage.  I'm interested in adding some jQuery Visual just for niceties, and I'd like to be better at themeing, but I'm not short of pedagogical functions.

Anyway, I have years invested in familiarity with the system so I'm rarely surprised by M1.9, which I feel worried might not be true for M2.x.  For a shoestring budget e-learning micro-business I can't afford to muck about.

Just my two cents worth.

Cheers,

Mike Smith,

Brisbane, Australia

and while we're on the subject - save IE 6! 
http://www.saveie6.com/

..ok, so Moodle 1.9 can't really be compared to IE 6... maybe Moodle 1.7 could but that's a different conversation.....

Moodle is provided "free" - support/updates/patches are provided "free" - can we really expect someone to provide "free" support for an old version? - I think we're lucky that so much free support comes from Moodle HQ already!!!

Moodle 1.9 won't "die" in June - it's a very stable release with a great featureset that many sites use and will likely continue to use for a while longer.

Of course those hosting their sites with Moodle Partners will likely have some form of support agreement in place - I expect a number of our clients will still on 1.9 for at least 18months and we'll be supporting our clients using it as will many other Moodle Partners and other volunteers in the community..... (although we'd love it if they all decided to upgrade to 2.x this year!)

Those still using 1.9 that have issues and want them fixed will have a number of options available to them - they just won't be able to get support from Moodle HQ or core devs fixing bugs upstream.
They will still be able to ask for support here in the moodle.org forums
They will be able to get commercial level support from most(if not all) Moodle Partners.
They will still have access to the code (it's open source!) to be able to fix any issues themselves.

Long live IE6!

Agreed... can we get Helen to chime into this very important conversation on availability of a separate forum?

the File api can only improve though - I'm sure we'll eventually find an elegant solution for this at some point in the future - it's just going to take someone with the time/knowledge and/or funding for someones time to implement it.

are you offering time/money to do this? - Moodle 1.9 is pretty stable already - what sort of support are you suggesting? - the community support here in the forums won't stop, the Moodle partners will likely step up and fix any major security issues that arise for a while after "official" support stops....

Spot on Mat. 

They might even be considered different products purely based on M1.9 being suitable for the role you describe.  That would be a broad base of users indeed - perhaps more so given the likely number of unregistered installations (in my case of the five or so Moodles I run for myself and clients I've only bothered registering just the one). 

I've been an advocate to my clients of Moodle as an LMS on the basis of low support requirements (indeed low total cost of ownership) until their user base grows to large numbers.  For many small businesses their mature users base would always be in the dozens, not hundreds let alone thousands.  But there are many, many small businesses and organisations in this cohort.  They can't afford IT development after commisioning of a new web application like an LMS, they need something low risk that works predictably out of the box.  Known weakness are more manageable than unknown features.

Dropping M1.9 support altogether seems to be tied to the notion that take-up of M2.x would be hastened, thereby allowing the development effort to focus on just the one version.  Obviously resources are limited, but M1.9's functional core could be frozen and it would really only need security fixes from Moodle HQ.  Surely that can't be an unsurmountable challenge. 

Throw out 1.6 to 1.8 by all means.  They are the equivalents of IE6 if we want to run analogies.  A better analogy would be that M1.9 is like Windows XP - mature, reliable, low resource needs, well-understood and therefore low risk.  Yes it has bugs and shortcomings, but they are known and manageable.

Let M2.0 attract new users on its own merits in terms of better functionality.  I'll happliy migrate on that argument and take my clients along, but please don't force me and thousands of other loyal Moodlers to upgrade simply because of security patches ending for M1.9.  I suspect many won't do it if they risk degraded functionality or higher risk - and then you'll have Moodle's name being tarnished as an increasingly leaky web application.

Nate, the changeover is not that full of angst. My employer has over 400 separate Moodles for schools, on one host, some are extensively used, some are barely used. I was not involved in the upgrade, but it seemed one day I wnet in to v1.9 and the next its was v2.1.

I am going to assume that the host took their time and built a new moodle server installed v2.1 then simply swapped things around and when it was ready, as best they could get it, redirected to the new server. The challenge then was to ensure the new server worked, and as far as I can see, it has worked in the different Moodles I have used since the changeover was committed. I am sure it would have been challenging for the host's tech team, but for everyone else, it seemed as smooth as silk. So it is how the changeover is technically handled that seems more important. For all I know, they could have been working on it since the release of v2.0 and if they had, it makes sense and shows a great deal of forward thinking. Good on them. As a user, I can say it was a good experience - they did their jobs and made it easy for us.

In this scenario, why continue with v1.9?        

I think that is generous of you Dan.  I also think people ought to be paid for their work in circumstances like you describe.  I don't mind contributing to the cost of this and netiher would my clients.  They would view it as a service, like virus updates for <insert your fave antivirus software>.  But before you put your hand up, why don't we try to convince Moodle HQ that it is in their interests?

Mike

Here, here!  You're a good man, Dan.

Dan,

This is an extraordinarily generous offer and will make a huge difference to my upgrade plans.

The migration to Moodle 2 will not be seamless but I do want to make it compelling for the end user. I think that the drag and drop plugin goes a long way to that end but there are still User Interface issues which make 2.x more clunky rather than smoother to use (to be enumerated elsewhere).

Knowing that security issues in 1.9 will be addressed for a least another 6 months means that I can take a more measured path to upgrading by running a pilot programme in the autumn.

Thanks

Dan,

Your proposal to fix serious security issues with Moodle 1.9 until 12/20/2012 is something that our university is extremely interested in.  We are currently using 1.9 and would like to continue using this version for a while longer while we work on setting up our Moodle 2.2 server and fine tune our upgrade/migration plan.

I wanted to check to see if there have been any status updates regarding your offer since the forum hasn't been active in over a month.

Thanks,
Chris

Close Anne. I believe it is Dec 2013 that CatalystIT is committed to for 1.9 support.

Putting my black hat on for a second, I worry about some setups where conservative IT departments will heave a sigh of relief and say, "Great, we don't have to upgade", and users will be sad at having to miss out on some new goodies.  But good for those running dual systems for a whie as plugins/mods/hacks catch up.

Derek,
[In no way shape or form connected to the above mentioned Moodle Partner but knows some good people working there]