PHP releases and support

Also, the support timeframe for php versions shipping as part of Linux distributions is different from the one of the 'vanilla' language runtime. Both Debian and RedHat/centOS have been known to support php versions for longer than the community upstream did (case in point: php 5.6 goes out of service in Debian 8 right at this moment, whereas upstream it was killed more than 6 months ago).

I'd go as far as say that distro support schedule is in fact more important, as the majority of php installs running on dedicated servers, are nowadays most likely running the os-provided version of php rather than rolling their own - which comes with a noticeable maintenance burden.

The situation might be slightly different with hosting providers, and of course the increasing adoption of Docker to run production payloads also affords more flexibility to the developers; I have no stats to provide to back my argument and in fact would be happy to see more data on this, if anyone has it.

On a completely subjective note: this article is well informed, thoughtful and correct. Still, it kind of conveys an alarming feeling about the stability and predictability of php as sane choice for long term projects. In my own experience, the care given to BC by the php language developers gives very good results, often markedly better in fact than other platforms which have more formal processes in place or are backed with commercial support by large corporations (Java and Python being prime examples).