This is yet another reminder that MySQL 5.6 reaches End of Life status in February 2021. I have been sending out such reminders since February of 2020. But in my presentations this year when I bring up the 5.6 EOL, there are a lot of users out there that are shocked to hear the news. In one of my November presentations (virtual) I had a very upset audience member who wondered why I was not making more of a big deal out of the EOL date.
Wikipedia says ""End-of-life" ("EOL") is a term used with respect to a product supplied to customers, indicating that the product is in the end of its useful life (from the vendor's point of view), and a vendor stops marketing, selling, or rework sustaining it. (The vendor may simply intend to limit or end support for the product.)"
What does this mean those of you running MySQL 5.6 will not be getting bug fixes, will find it much harder to get support, and will get social ostracized by all. Well, maybe not that last one. But you life is going to be tougher. As someone who loves old cars I can attest that even the simplest of spare parts or practical repair knowledge on unique features gets much harder to find over time. And like my buddy who still supports dBase II, you will find your world curtailed.
So please upgrade to MySQL 5.7 or better yet 8.0. Those of you running 5.7 can use the upgrade checker utility to help you upgrade to 8.0.
