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Support End-of-life Policy

PaperCut Software continues to provide assistance to customers running PaperCut releases all the way back to version 1.0 released in 1998. (Yes, we still have customers running 1.0!). Support for older versions includes:

  • Assistance with operation – for example answering questions about how to perform tasks.
  • Assistance with troubleshooting – for example offering tips on how to overcome problems.

Once a product is out of support life, we can provide only limited support for the product. If problems are encountered with an end-of-life product, it is recommended to upgrade to a recent version. When running a recent version we can provide great support and diagnose and fix any issues you encounter.

End-of-life

PaperCut Software may elect now, or in the future, to discontinue support for a given product, module or public API. The reasons for this include:

  • Technical advances in computing and networking may mean that maintaining an old application in an evolving network may become cost prohibitive.
  • It may not be an effective use of development resources to commit time to older products with very low customer utilization.
  • Internal code changes may mandate changes to public APIs.

Any end-of-line (EOL) announcements will be listed on this page at least three (3) months in advance. Note: End-of-life does not mean that the application will no longer function - you may continue to run the application. EOL simply indicates that PaperCut Software may choose not to devote resources to resolving support issues and instead suggest an upgrade pathway.

API Deprecation

Any deprecation of XML Web Services APIs will be listed here with at least two (2) months warning. Where technically possible the deprecated API will be marked as "deprecated" but left active for at least 12-months or longer ensuring developers have time to change their code/projects. If you have important development and would like to be notified of changes, please contact the PaperCut development team.


Announcements

1st July 2011 - Ending support for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.3 (Panther)

Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) is just about to be released, and we have taken this opportunity to review support for older Mac versions. PaperCut has supported Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.3 from the beginning of when we added our support for the Mac platform. These operating system versions are now very old and are becoming difficult for us to support. Our statistics show that less than 5% customers running PaperCut on Mac servers are using OS X 10.4. For this reason we are ending support for running PaperCut OS X 10.4 on the server (we will continue to support workstations running 10.4).

The end-of-life for these versions will apply on the following dates:

  • OS X 10.4 on the server - 31st December 2011
  • OS X 10.3 on the workstation - 31st December 2011

It is our intention to end support for OS X 10.5 on the server (along with PPC CPU support) at the end of 2012.

1st July 2011 - Ending support PaperCut Internet Control module

The Internet Control module has always been a niche product that has only been used by a small percentage of customers, and only in particular regions of the world. It was mainly used where internet bandwidth was expensive and usually charged by the MB or GB (e.g. Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands).

As internet bandwidth caps have increased and bandwidth based charging is diminishing, there is less need for the PaperCut Internet Control Module. There are also other products in the market that are dedicated to various aspects of Internet usage control, filtering, reporting, etc.

Over the past 5 years PaperCut print control features have grown to cater for all aspects of print monitoring and control. We have decided to focus on this side of the product and will no longer support the Internet control component for new customers after December 2011. Existing customers may continue to run it until the end of December 2012 at which point it will be retired completely.

18th Jan 2011 - PaperCut ChargeBack is now PaperCut NG (professional license)

The functionality provided by PaperCut ChargeBack has now been rolled into PaperCut NG with a new licensing option for professional organizations (PaperCut NG professional client billing). All existing functionality provided by PaperCut ChargeBack, plus much more, is now offered in PaperCut NG version 11+. This move to a single online edition of PaperCut has been done to reduce the engineering and testing time around releases freeing up development resources so we can add more features faster. PaperCut ChargeBack users can upgrade by simply installing PaperCut NG over-the-top of their current install using the standard upgrade procedure. Your ChargeBack license will be detected and automatically converted to a PaperCut NG license with professional client billing enabled.

18th Jan 2011 - End-of-life announcement for PaperCut 9 (all editions)

The end-of-life of PaperCut versions 9 will occur on the following dates:

  • Customers on standard support: 31st December 2011
  • Customers with current premium support: 31st December 2012

The supported upgrade path is to upgrade to PaperCut version 10 or higher (version 11 recommended). The software can be upgraded with a standard install-over-the-top procedure as outlined here.

27th May 2010 - End-of-life announcement for PaperCut 8 (all editions)

The end-of-life of PaperCut versions 8 will occur on the following dates:

  • Customers on standard support: 31st December 2010
  • Customers with current premium support: 31st December 2011

The supported upgrade path is to upgrade to PaperCut version 9 or higher (10 recommended). The software can be upgraded with a standard install-over-the-top procedure as outlined here.

1st Oct 2009 - End-of-life announcement for PaperCut 6 and 7 (all editions)

The end-of-life of PaperCut versions 6 & 7 will occur on the following dates:

  • Customers on standard support: 1st December 2009
  • Customers with current premium support: 31st December 2010

The supported upgrade path is to upgrade to PaperCut version 9 or higher. The software can be upgraded with a standard install-over-the-top procedure as outlined here.

13th Mar 2008 - End-of-life announcement for PaperCut Quota 1.0 to 6.3

The end-of-life of PaperCut Quota versions 1.0 to 6.3 will occur on the following dates:

  • Customers on standard support: 31st December 2008
  • Customers with current premium support: 31st December 2009

PaperCut Quota has been superseded by PaperCut NG which includes all the features of PaperCut Quota and much more. Customers are encouraged to upgrade to PaperCut NG. The upgrade procedure is documented here. PaperCut Quota license holders may upgrade at a discounted price.

9th May 2007 - End-of-life announcement for Multi-server support in PaperCut Quota

The end-of-life for officially supported multi-server support in PaperCut Quota will occur on the following dates:

  • Customers on standard support: 1st June 2007
  • Customers with current premium support: 31st December 2008

The multi-server support features will continue to be available in the application however technical support will not be offered. Customers can continue to use this feature in an unsupported manner. This methods used to support multi-servers in PaperCut Quota (communication over network shares) have proven to be problematic to maintain as operating system hotfixes and/or network changes have been known to cause problems. Customers with multiple servers should consider migrating to PaperCut NG. This is a free upgrade for premium support customers.

The supported upgrade path is migration to PaperCut NG or consolidation onto a single server.

14th Feb 2007 - End-of-life announcement for PaperCut ChargeBack 1.0 to 6.2

The end-of-life of the legacy version of PaperCut ChargeBack between versions 1.0 to 6.2 (also previously known as PrintCharger Enterprise and PaperCut Enterprise) will occur on the following dates:

  • Customers on standard support: 1st June 2007
  • Customers with current premium support: 31st December 2008

The end-of-life on PaperCut ChargeBack is required as the communications method used between client and server is Microsoft file share based. This method has proven to be problematic to maintain as operating system hotfixes and/or network changes have been known to cause problems.

The supported upgrade path is PaperCut ChargeBack 7.0 (or later).


Categories: Licensing, Support


Keywords: continuing support, upgrade, net module end of life

Page last modified on November 08, 2011, at 11:24 PM

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