When is 2021 LTS due?

Guess I'll start this thread with a big disclaimer saying that this isn't some weird complaining thing about it not being out yet. I'm being genuine here.

Is 2021 LTS due out soon? Is it normal to be well into 2022 without the LTS from a previous year being released? When could we reasonably expect it? I haven't kept track of releases in previous years.

I haven't been able to find anything beyond the 'The road to 2021' blog post.

Alternatively, as a question, would any thorough users of the 2021 alpha consider is OK to use as is (I've only dabbled with it)?

 

Yes, it's normal practice for Unity. You can look at past releases. 2020.3 LTS was released in March.

 

2020 LTS released late March 2021.

You mean the 2021 Tech release, or the 2022 Beta? (AFAIK there is currently no public Alpha)

If you are talking about the 2021 Tech release, it's okay. The last couple of releases have been weird and buggy for me and have caused a bunch of issues in builds, but it's stable otherwise.

 

Awesome. Thank you.

 

Does it not go Beta, then Alpha, then LTS? Did it used to? Am I imagining things?

In any case case, thanks for your feedback on on the current 2021.

 

Tech releases have alpha and then beta releases and then become .1 and/or .2 releases. Like in 2020 it looked like this:
- 2020.1 alpha
[...]
- 2020.1 beta
[...]
- 2020.1.1f1 - official tech release
- 2020.2 alpha
[...]
- 2020.2 beta
[...]
- 2020.2.1f1 - official tech release
[...]
- 2020.3.1f1 - LTS
[...]

Where [...] are bugfix and minor improvement releases (except for LTS, those are only get bugfix releases).
Usually .1 beta and .2 alpha can be live at the same time (there is some overlap). After the LTS release, only that gets new bugfix releases, the tech versions aren't.

 

Interesting. Thanks for clarifying!

 

Another note, is that the previous year's releases typically don't become LTS, until the new year has a Final release out. I.e. once we see Unity 2022.1.1f, then we should expect to see Unity 2021 convert its last minor release version into LTS.

 

It is out now

 

https://blog.unity.com/news/introducing-unity-2021-lts

 

Was excited to try it out! But using LTS that's not labeled LTS felt very dirty

 

It's an issue they are looking into already:

• https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-2021-lts-is-now-available.1263407/#post-8041523

 

It literally says 'Long Term Support (LTS)' directly above it.

 

Not everywhere in the hub, only on that label above on that specific UI panel Elsewhere it just shows as a regular release, hence why one of your team members acknowledged the issue and said its being looked into

 

Common guys, stop it with the unrealistic expectations of consistent UIs.