Support Policy

This document outlines Sophos's policy on supported versions for PureMessage for UNIX.

The version support policy is intended to help you plan for required software updates, and ensure that you are using a version of PureMessage that provides the best threat protection, reliability, and quality.

The platform support policy is designed to help you plan future platform investments for your organization, ensuring that you are running PureMessage on operating systems that are reasonably recent, supported, and secure.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding these policies, contact pureMessage-feedback@sophos.com.

Types of PureMessage Updates

There are four types of PureMessage updates (excluding data updates):

Major releases introduce significant new functionality, may require upgrade/deployment planning, may contain significant changes in behavior, and may require database re-indexing or other activities that could cause downtime (though efforts are made to make upgrades as smooth as possible).
Minor releases may include fixes, improvements, and new functionality. Minor releases can contain small changes in behavior, but do not require database re-indexing or other activities that could cause significant downtime. Major functionality may be introduced in a minor release, but is disabled by default.
Maintenance releases may include fixes and small improvements. The changes in behavior are minimal, or there may be no behavioral changes.
Hotfixes may include security updates or other very urgent updates and may or may not represent an increment in version number. Hotfixes are not considered “versions” in the context of the version support policy.

PureMessage Version Support Policy

Sophos will support a major version for at least 18 months from the initial release of that major version. Sophos will not discontinue a major version until the next major version has been available for at least nine months. At least three months before support for a major version is discontinued, you will be notified via an update to this document, and via a technical email bulletin.

Prior to the end of support, major versions enter a maintenance period. A major version usually enters maintenance approximately three months after the subsequent major version is released. During the maintenance phase, virus and spam data, critical software fixes, and (where possible) new anti-virus and anti-spam detection capabilities are provided, but no new features are introduced.

When support for a major version ends, Sophos may no longer provide anti-spam, anti-virus, or other updates, and technical support for that version may not be available.

Within a major version, Sophos will test and support minor or maintenance versions for a minimum of four months following that version’s release. Sophos will not end support for a previous version until a newer version has been available for at least two months. Sophos will maintain expected end-of-support dates for any versions listed below.

When support for a minor/maintenance release ends, Sophos will recommend upgrading to the latest version before providing support. Testing of data and product updates may not be performed on unsupported versions.

PureMessage End of Life (EOL) Program

Sophos has published the end of support date for PureMessage for UNIX versions and retirement dates for platforms. Sophos is not able to support a PureMessage for UNIX system whose version is beyond the end of support date or whose platform is retired.

For planned end of support dates see Sophos PureMessage for UNIX: End of Support schedule.