The end is near in terms of official support for .NET 6. Microsoft has confirmed that the free open-source developer platform will reach its End of Support stage in just a few months on November 12, 2024. .NET 6 first launched in a preview version in February 2021, and was officially released in November 2021.
In a blog post today, Microsoft mentions that November 12 is also going to be the date for its monthly Patch Tuesday updates. The company could add one final update for .NET 6 on that date if there are any critical issues that are discovered. .NET 6 was released under Microsoft's Long Term Support (LTS) time period which means it got three years of official support.
After November 12, any apps that were developed using .NET 6 will still continue to run, but since there will be no new updates, they could have security issues going forward. People who keep using .NET 6-based apps also may no longer be able to get technical support. Microsoft also says that developers will see “gold bar” warning messages in Visual Studio if they target .NET 6 after the end of the support date.
Microsoft released the successor to .NET 6. which is naturally called .NET 7, in November 2022, but it was under the company's Standard Term Support timeline, That means .NET 7 has already hit its end of support cycle back in May 2024.
Microsoft is urging developers who have .NET 6 apps to upgrade them to the currently supported .NET 8, which launched in November 2023. People who simply use apps with .NET 6 are asked to alert their app developers or vendors to ask them to upgrade them to .NET 8
Microsoft has already launched the preview version of its successor, .NET 9, in February 2024. It is currently scheduled to be officially launched in November 2024.
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