[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #51043: PHP: bump minimum version requirements

[WordPress Trac]

#51043: PHP: bump minimum version requirements
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 Reporter:  jrf             |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  task (blessed)  |      Status:  closed
 Priority:  normal          |   Milestone:
Component:  General         |     Version:
 Severity:  normal          |  Resolution:  wontfix
 Keywords:  has-patch       |     Focuses:
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Comment (by jb510):

 Replying to [comment:7 matt]:
 > Just so we don't cherry-pick stats to make a point, it's worth noting
 that the PHP distribution across all WP sites we track is the same as when
 that post was made in 2018: 85% are 5.6 or above. Only about 66% are 7.1
 and above.

 As respectfully as possible... this is literally the definition of cherry
 picking stats.  Stats do matter, so let’s have a reasonable conversation
 about what’s behind these stats and and where the blind spots are.

 I feel the most important stat to consider would be what percentage of
 those site running PHP 5.6 and below, that are also running the latest
 version of WP (5.4 or 5.5 since 5.5 is still so fresh). That’s about 50%
 today. That would be a more accurate proxy as to how many sites would be
 affected by WP 5.6 dropping support for PHP 5.6 rather than implying all
 sites are affected equally.

 Sergey mentioned the serve happy notice, cool, but how many see that?
 Tthere are so many sites folks don’t actively manage and no one is ever
 going to see that notice. I think there is a fundamental ignorance of the
 fact that there are a lot of ghost ships out there sailing the seas of the
 Internet. Sites which no admin has logged into in years. In some cases
 sites admins have forgotten these sites even exist.  No one is ever going
 to upgrade WP on those, let alone PHP. I still log into servers on a
 regular basis to find long abandoned WP installs still chugging away in
 some forgotten sub folder. Less so today than 5 years ago, but I still
 find them.

 Even more conservatively, let’s say “actively maintained” is the 75% of
 sites which run WP 5.x, leaving 25% running WP 4 or below. what percentage
 of that 75% chunk would be affected be dropping PHP 5.6?

 I suspect viewed through the lens of “active sites”, even the generous
 75%, that very few sites running PHP 5.6 would be affected by this. While
 the benefit to the site owners and further To the ecosystem of developers
 continuing not having to jump through hoops to accommodate dead versions
 of PHP far out weighs the cost to those abandoned ghost ships.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51043#comment:25>
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