Everything you want to know about Jira’s latest LTS releases

[#1]

Hey there, Data Center Community! I’m excited to share two new PDFs highlighting all of the new features and capabilities available in the newest LTS releases for Jira Software 9.4 and Jira Service Management 5.4, which were released in November.

We know it’s common for many customers to migrate from LTS to LTS versions, so I wanted to be sure you’re aware of everything you get with these releases and don’t miss any of the variety of features and capabilities that have been shipped. These most recent LTS releases pack a punch and provide powerful performance updates and a more intuitive user experience, so you can accomplish more without breaking a sweat.

Thanks for being part of our community and please share any questions about the LTS release in the comments.

Download here

[Rachel Purpel]

Curious -- why are these PDFs and not Confluence pages? These downloads are inconvenient.

[John Dunkelberg]

@Rachel Purpel I'm guessing they figure if you want a web reference, you'd just go to the product release page: https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirasoftware/jira-software-9-4-x-release-notes-1178869757.html

[Rachel Purpel]

Good point @John Dunkelberg . I guess I'm just curious what the point / use case is for these.

[John Dunkelberg]

So looking over it in detail, @Rachel Purpel , I think it's a marketing piece to motivate update.  For more actionable information it has a link to the LTS change log page,  hidden away in the footer of the last page of the PDF.

The change log is the useful bit. In the past when we've prepared to move from LTS to LTS, I've gone through all of the release notes in that span and copy pasted notable items into an internal Confluence page of ours.  Then we'd use that for checking to see what we should worry about testing against our customizations, apps, and what we need to document for our users.

Looking at the PDF itself, some of the items have links to more information or even support issues but most don't.  It's like maybe multiple product managers at Atlassian wrote their own sections, but weren't consistent on what approach they wanted to use?

[Jeanne Howe]

Can't help but notice that there is not a single end user feature/functionality bug fix, not a single end use feature/functionality upgrade/improvement, not a single end user new feature. 

Atlassian is performing the bare minimum upgrades to remain platform compliant (DB, Tomcat, API, etc) and legally compliant (accessibility, privacy, "critical" bug fixes, etc.).

This company was built on their Server and DC customers. It is more than disappointing to see how quickly (and completely) they are willing to drop us. If you haven't already started looking for an alternative to Atlassian, what are you waiting for?