Terms and Definitions
Platform | Combination of operating system and one or more hardware architectures. Fully compatible versions of operating system and/or hardware shall be deemed one platform, for Mac OS X and Windows server and desktop versions shall, however, be deemed different platforms. |
Product | PDFlib GmbH software offering for a certain platform |
Major release | New version of a product with significantly extended functionality |
Maintenance release | A maintenance release (also called minor release) is a new version of a product that rectifies faults, modifies the product to new versions of an operating system or a language binding etc. Maintenance releases do not contain any significant extensions in functionality, however. A maintenance release is explicitly marked as such. |
Update | An Update converts an existing product license into a license for a newer major release of the same product for the same platform. |
Upgrade | An Upgrade converts an existing license for a product into a license for the same major release of a higher-quality product, which constitutes a functional expansion of the first product. |
Language binding | Executable version of a product for use with a platform-specific version of a programming language or programming environment. |
Lifetime | The lifetime of a product defines how long support cases to this product will be accepted (given a valid support agreement). The lifetime shall be defined for each major release of a product. It is stated in the pertinent documentation and also posted here. |