Well… it is really only a start. It only addresses part of the problem.
Nowhere in his community address on version stability did he address the ability to re-install on a fresh server one of the supported legacy versions.
This is really one of the defining failures of the current system. If you have installed this on a VPS server and something happens to the VPS service provider, you are stuck.
You may have an image file you could restore on one of the original service providers servers but it rarely would be compatible with a different provider (even if they would agree to allow the restore).
At this point you have no way to re-install the same version and get back online with your work. Your only option is to install whatever the newest version is that works with the install script. Then you must deal with the headache of trying to get everything working again when there were changes made to the core.
I suffered through this once already and had a perturbed client that spread negative karma about the un-reliability of the system (that it couldn’t eeven get back to where it was when it crashed). Those negative words cost me 2 demo appointments that decided they had no further interest in ERPNext. That was probably the most disappointing results of the whole incident.
There are several threads on the forum about re-installing a previous version and all of them are far more technical than the average person setting up the system can understand. I even paid a developer to try to figure this out for me and they could make it work either. The most disappointing money I have ever spent on this project.
So, if the team wants to be really serious about making stable versions for 2, 3, or 4, years, then this has to be part of the process. Just running “bench update” only works when the server has not crashed. The definition of having a stable version MUST include the ability to install that stable version from scratch without being an advanced developer. It has to be as simple as installing the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
Then, and only then can you really claim to have stable long term versions.
I do not believe that frappe and erpnext are currently structured to allow for such a bold plan. I really believe that it will not be possible until the method for installing a system is over-hauled to allow for this kind of action. It would mean a completely different way of organizing the sources.
I like the idea that this is finally on the radar screens of the people running the project. But, please, don’t do this half-way. plan for it and do it right. Maybe start something like this with version 12 or even 13. Just make sure the way the project is structured will support this great idea. I would hate to see it create even more chaos.
I don’t mind being patient and waiting for it, as long as it is done right.
So, thank you for paying attention to the direction of the user base. Thank you for adding version stability to your future plans. We will all be grateful when it arrives, as long as it works similar to all other software that has LTS support points.
/rant off
BKM