The release page for 5.8.7 ( https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma-5.8.7.php ) links to "Source Info" page ( https://www.kde.org/info/plasma-5.8.7.php ) that says "NOT OUT YET" and all links for the tarballs return a 404 Not Found error. The release page for 5.8.6 ( https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma-5.8.7.php ) links to "Source Info" page for 5.9.2. This has delayed the ability for us (Adélie Linux) to package and release a desktop based on KDE Plasma 5. Thankfully a helpful IRC user (demm on freenode) directed me to Attic/ where 5.8.7 has been [accidentally?] moved, so that I could at least start the packaging process (however I hope these URLs will be stable/ again, at least for 5.8.8). The tarballs themselves have been moved to Attic/ despite 5.8 being LTS branch and 5.8.7 being the current release of it.
SVN commit 1499036 by bcooksley: Remove not out yet notice from the 5.8.7 source package page. M +0 -2 plasma-5.8.7.php WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=1499036
SVN commit 1499037 by bcooksley: Link to the correct page for the Plasma 5.8.6 source packages. M +1 -1 plasma-5.8.6.php WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=1499037
All old releases were archived by Sysadmin as needed to free up space within the stable/ tree. I can't comment as to whether the Plasma team intends to make further LTS releases.
Excuse me, but are you kidding? Have you considered maybe not shipping point updates to plasma-workspace-wallpapers and oxygen-icons when they don't change content, instead of REMOVING the current *LTS* release from the stable mirror? The KDE system admins do understand what the term 'LTS' means, right? It means "long term support". Long term. Not short term. The Plasma team has definitely committed[1] to releasing more LTS patches, through at least April 2018. They understand what LTS means, and understand that distributions rely on stability so that they may package your software and bring you the users that donate to your causes and make your community so vibrant. Since 5.8.8 is due in a few days shy of three weeks (2017-10-18), I suppose I don't have much of a case for you moving the 5.8.7 release back to stable, unless there is a major issue that causes the 5.8.8 release to slip. (It doesn't look like this will be the case, judging from the current backlog.) But you *must not* "archive" 5.8.8 to "save space" until April 2018. Is this clear? 5.8.8 is a Long Term Support release and must be supported Long Term. Thank you for your understanding. [1]: https://community.kde.org/Schedules/Plasma_5
I've moved this back now. Please don't insult people when reporting bugs.
I apologise if my message came off as insulting. It probably should have been phrased differently. I was frustrated due to the fact our entire team was blocking on this and wasting three days of our time trying to hunt down the tarballs. Also, I really didn't know if the sysadmin team did know what LTS meant; a lot of people I meet (even in IT roles) do not, so I was trying to make it as clear as possible. I meant no offense and I thank both you and Ben for resolving these matters so we can ship stable Plasma in our distro. Thank you very much.