256 is an important power of two, so I'm choosing to believe it bodes well that today's WiX Online Meeting #256 is the official kickoff for WiX v5 -- and WiX v4.0.1.

WiX v5

Regular readers of this blog might have noticed frequent mentions of WiX v4. Well, that was then. Now it's all about WiX v5. As we discussed previously, we're planning on annual releases for future versions of WiX. Working backward from 5-Apr-2024 -- one year after WiX v4's release -- gives us our WiX v5 schedule:

  • v5.0.0-preview.1 on 5-Jan-2024
  • v5.0.0-rc.1 on 5-Feb-2024
  • v5.0.0-rc.2 on 5-Mar-2024
  • v5.0.0 on 5-Apr-2024

There was some debate about whether the v5.0.0-preview.1 release should come earlier, like 5-Dec-2023, to get more testing time, though it meant the December holidays couldn't be used for development time. There were no firm conclusions, so that date might change. Stay tuned for news about what's planned for WiX v5.

WiX v4.0.1

Glancing at the issues up for triage, some feel serious enough to warrant a v4.0.1 bug-fix release of WiX v4. Rob proposed a v4.0.1 release date of 5-May-2023. I suggested an additional month as a hedge against future bugs suggesting the need for a v4.0.2. Some debate ensued and an exact date is yet to be decided. We'll take a look at the issues we've assigned to v4.0.1 at our next meeting (2-May) and decide how much more time is needed. So if you haven't tried to convert your projects to WiX v4 (still!), you're running out of chances to get fixes before WiX v5 next year -- unless you're a FireGiant customer; we've got you covered there.

Issue triage