EOL Software

What is End-Of-Life or ‘EOL’ in Software?

What is EOL Software?

If you are using WordPress and running the Wordfence security plugin, Every software product has a lifecycle. This cycle begins the day the software is released and ends when the developer decides to stop creating software updates and security patches. It is a general question and users may be asking, why do the software manufacturer’s stop? Why should, for instance, would Microsoft want to cease support for Windows 7, one of its most popular operating systems? As time passes, consumers steadily place greater demands on software. These users want more features, better performance, improved tools, etc. Eventually, the old software becomes incapable of meeting these demands so a new program is created to replace it, much like how a new car model supplants its predecessor.

When a software product reaches EOL, it is no longer supported by software developers and they would advise End-users to get new software. That means that, even if someone finds a security hole in the software, the developers will not fix it.
If a development team is productive, they will release many versions of the software they work over a period of time. It is not possible to support every version of the code ever released. As a business practice, the development team will only support their software for a certain amount of time. After that time has elapsed, the development team suggests that the user community upgrade to a newer version of the same software, which usually does things better than the old versions and is fully supported.

It is a win-win situation for the Software manufacturer and End-users to constantly upgrade their software, while the former gets new business and the later gets new software with latest features.