Under the standard Micro Focus support lifecycle, when new products are released, older version that have become more mature and stable have reduced service levels until they reach what is known as “End of Service.” This doesn’t mean that the product stops working or that  customers have to stop using the products. It does mean that there won’t be any further Web Syncs and support is limited to telephone and web support. Additional licenses can still be purchased and customers under maintenance can still get updates to the latest versions free of charge.

It is recommended that all v5.0 users update to v5.1 as soon as possible as it delivers a number of performance and stability improvements and is an enabler for several significant new options, including:

• Support for development using Eclipse on Windows, UNIX and Linux

• Server Express Remote Development Option which enables the use of the power of Windows development tools with applications that stay on UNIX or Linux

• Net Express with .NET supports Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5

• Database connectors to store COBOL data in standard relational databases without changing COBOL source code

• XDBC to provide access to COBOL data from standard business intelligence tools such as Crystal Reports or Excel

For more information on why to update to v5.1 click here.  

This affects Net Express v5.0, Net Express with .NET v5.0, Server Express v5.0, Server for COBOL v5.0, Server for .NET v5.0 and Server for SOA v5.0.