Around 62% of all Internet sites will run an unsupported PHP version in 10 weeks
zdnet.com
zdnet.com
If you have been dreading a transition, don't sweat it. From our experience, it was easier than a developer might think when they first open that old PHP codebase. Oh, and the speed increases the benchmarks promised are real. Even the bad apps saw a noticeable speed increase.
Those codebases are often hideous but they've been getting stuff done, and that's admirable.
Generally when updating a codebase like that, it's important to also make sure that passwords are being stored securely, SQL queries are using prepared statements, and XSS/CSRF protections are in place, and a protocol is set up for keeping up with new PHP versions. Then hopefully it will be ready to go back to minimum maintenance mode for some more years.
I'm familiar with this phenomenon because a decade ago, I used PHP for contract work. Some of my work from this time is still running, seemingly unaltered. I've gone back to clients over the years but they treat me like I'm trying to shake them down. Even if you make it clear you don't want to do the work, it rarely has a good outcome. Of the dozen or so clients who were still running my output 10Y+ after the fact, one took it offline, the rest blanked me.
Now consider how many PHP contractors exist out there doing scrot jobs for SMBs? How many of these crappy little sites exist? Millions? Hundreds of millions? Do you think it more likely they're going to spring for upgrading/replacing all this? Or that 5.x is going to stay exactly where it is, indefinitely?
They're not going to "sweat it"; they only care about financial outlay.
But if you think that explaining clients that there are new versions and they should upgrade works, think again !
I still got 6 or 7 websites I’m hosting with PHP5.2 ! And I know they won’t work as it if I migrate them on 7.x.
For the last 2 years I’m pushing them to update the code. But they won’t, as it’s websites done by agencies that don’t exists anymore, and it has suits them for years so why change ?
So what do I do ? I can’t shut them (as they sure won’t like it and might send their lawyers after me). I can’t refuse to host them (as they are already clients and, in France, it’s difficult by law to refuse to sell to someone).
Of course my hosting contracts should have been better 18 years ago and it’s mostly the fault of the young me.
But here I am. My best solution would be to make the changes by myself under their validation. And no one will pay me for that.
When selling a new hosting now, it’s on the last version. And with a better contract !
And Ubuntu 14.04 won't be supported past next April, which while more than double the 10 weeks discussed in this article isn't all that far into the future.
Beyond those two details, you're right.
The broader point remains that support for older PHP will degrade rapidly from this point forward, even if a bit of it lingers on for a handful of years.
That market share, though... 62%, wow!
There is not much friction between 7.0,7.1,7.2, etc, so hopefully at least this 7.x share will continue to keep upgrading.
This is completely out of line with my experience, job listings, and all other sources I can find. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_languages_used_in_... and https://www.codingdojo.com/blog/7-most-in-demand-programming... and https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/
Additionally, most forum scripts use PHP (so add phpBB, SMF, MyBB, vBulletin, IPB, XenForo, Woltlab, etc sites to the count), MediaWiki uses PHP (and most wikis run on it), most eCommerce solutions use PHP (Magento + OS Commerce, Open Cart and obvious WooCommerce), and a large percentage of bespoke sites do as well (especially older ones, or those from less experienced programmers/teams). Educational sites use Moodle too.
It's just that these sites are less on the technical side than something like Google or Amazon or Netflix or what not, and likely require smaller programming teams working on them. It's entirely possible that most FANNG companies and Silicon Valley startups don't use PHP while most sites/visited sites in general do, hence the disparities.
Meanwhile, web agency y produces 20+ Wordpress sites a day with two staff.
I've supported web hosting clusters for thousands of websites, and I've never had a single customer not run PHP. The numbers look right to me.
We are not talking about IT people but John/Jane Smith running their hobby site about fishing or their community to exchange ideas about old cars. They might not even have users but they are still websites.
If you take Magento and WooCommerce (the most popular e-commerce WP plug-in) you have about 50% of the e-commerce market share (by installs/shops not revenue cuz well eBay and Amazon got that handled).
A lot of companies even fairly large enterprises use Drupal, Joomla and ofc Wordpress.
PLUG: We have blogged about PHP deadlines as well: https://blog.fortrabbit.com/on-php-deadlines
If shameless self-plug is allowed, take a look at my presentation at DrupalCon Vienna: "PHP7+: The why's and the how's": https://events.drupal.org/vienna2017/sessions/php-7-whys-and...