Important Deprecation Announcement for ArcGIS 10.1 and the 10.2.1 Release

Esri announced, via blog, their deprecation plan for ArcGIS 10.1. According to the announcement, at each release, Esri assesses if there are any platforms (operating systems, databases, development environments, or hardware) that are at the end of their supportability. Additionally, it reports that it reviews technology to see if any of the newer functionality has superseded older functionality. In either case, Esri tries to give as much advanced notice as possible for any changes in supported platforms or functionality through our Deprecation Plan documents.

Esri said that given the pace in the change of technology, it has been fairly conservative in what it deprecates (that is, recommends that a software feature, characteristic, or practice should be avoided, typically because it is being superseded). However, with the update to the Deprecation Plan for ArcGIS 10.1 and 10.2, plus the release of ArcGIS 10.2.1, it says it has a number of items that need to be deprecated. Esri says that many of these changes have been a long time coming (for both platforms and functionality); and also noted upcoming plans to give early notice for software that will eventually be impacted.

With the ArcGIS 10.2.1 update to the Deprecation Plan, the pattern is changing from a once-a-year release format to new updates with every release. The Deprecation Plan is also expanding to cover apps, mobile, and ArcGIS Runtime SDK products.

Following are some of the major changes reported by Esri:

• There will not be a release of the ArcGIS Runtime SDKs at 10.2.1.
• ArcGIS 10.2.1 will be the last release that supports Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista for ArcGIS for Server, ArcGIS for Desktop, ArcGIS Engine, ArcGIS Reader, and Runtime SDK (for Java and WPF).
• ArcGIS 10.2.1 will be the last release that supports Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 for ArcGIS for Server, ArcGIS for Desktop, ArcGIS Engine, ArcGIS Reader, and Runtime SDK (for Java and WPF).
• The ArcGIS 10.2 series of releases (ArcGIS 10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2) will be the last releases that include the ArcSDE command line tools.
• The ArcGIS 10.2 series of releases (ArcGIS 10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2) will be the last releases that include the ArcSDE application server.

For updated information on the company’s deprecation plans, refer to the following link: Deprecation Plan for ArcGIS 10.1 and ArcGIS 10.2.1. (This deprecation plan is also linked from a technical article in the Esri Support Knowledge Base.)