# 1 Backward Compatible Software

List of Open Source software projects that officially pledge to never (again) release a new version with notable breaking API changes and guarantee to eternally stay backward compatible (sometimes also called "upwards" compatible):

Project Home page Description Backward compatibility status Pledge Deprecation strategy Since
Go https://go.dev Programming language by Google Best effort Go 2 [...] is never going to happen., [1] https://go.dev/wiki/Deprecated
Linux kernel https://kernel.org OS kernel Compatible WE DO NOT BREAK USERSPACE!

# 2 Somewhat stable Software

The following Open Source software projects are known for being very conservative with breaking changes but have made no promise so far.

# 3 Upcoming Incompatible Software

The following is a list of notable software projects that may appear to have been backward compatible in recent times, but have explicitly stated at least the possibility of another breaking version:

# 4 Backwards Incompatible Software

The following is a list of notable software projects that have a recognition of being backward compatible but have shown to not strictly follow that rule: