RE: Kafka 4.4.0 formal release date -- Important

Hi Matthias, I believe we should now have confirmation of the exact release date for Kafka 4.4.0. Could you please share the confirmed date? Regards Vivek -----Original Message----- From: Matthias J. Sax <mjsax@apache.org> Sent: 17 September 2026 05:59 To: Mayank Maheshwari M <mayank.m.maheshwari@ericsson.com>; Vivek Agarwal B <vivek.b.agarwal@ericsson.com>; users@kafka.apache.org Cc: Ashish Verma V <ashish.v.verma@ericsson.com> Subject: Re: Kafka 4.4.0 formal release date -- Important No updates... We are waiting for RC2. But today, a potentially new blocker bug was found... On 9/16/26 5:27 AM, Mayank Maheshwari M wrote: > Hi @Matthias J. Sax, > > Unfortunately, I have not been able to follow the development mailing list to monitor the progress, as you suggested, due to security constraints at Ericsson. > > I understand that you previously mentioned the Kafka release may require approximately two more weeks. As noted in my last email, we have a release delivery scheduled for the end of September. Therefore, I would like to check whether you see a possibility of having the Kafka release available within that timeframe. > > I really appreciate your response and support on this. > > //Mayank > > -----Original Message----- > From: Vivek Agarwal B <vivek.b.agarwal@ericsson.com> > Sent: 16 September 2026 05:05 PM > To: Matthias J. Sax <mjsax@apache.org>; users@kafka.apache.org > Cc: Ashish Verma V <ashish.v.verma@ericsson.com>; Mayank Maheshwari M > <mayank.m.maheshwari@ericsson.com> > Subject: RE: Kafka 4.4.0 formal release date -- Important > > Hi Matthias, > > Do we now have a confirmed date for the formal release of Kafka 4.4.0? > > Regards > Vivek > > -----Original Message----- > From: Matthias J. Sax <mjsax@apache.org> > Sent: 10 September 2026 02:49 > To: users@kafka.apache.org; Vivek Agarwal B > <vivek.b.agarwal@ericsson.com> > Cc: Ashish Verma V <ashish.v.verma@ericsson.com>; Mayank Maheshwari M > <mayank.m.maheshwari@ericsson.com> > Subject: Re: Kafka 4.4.0 formal release date -- Important > > [You don't often get email from mjsax@apache.org. Learn why this is > important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ] > > As an open source project, we don't have committed release dates. The page literally says "no earlier than": > > > meaning we expect to release no earlier than September 9 2026 > > The AK 4.4.0 release is in code freeze, and a first RC was cut. But some blocker bugs were found, and need to be fixed before the next RC can be prepared. > > If you want to monitor the progress more closely, you can follow the dev mailing list (or the corresponding email thread on the archive in case you don't want to subscribe). > > At this point, I would think we need _at least_ two more weeks... > > > -Matthias > > On 9/8/26 9:52 PM, Mayank Maheshwari M via users wrote: >> Hi Kafka Team, >> >> Appreciate your response to the email below. >> >> We have a release planned for the end of September and are planning to include this Kafka version with the vulnerability fixes in the release. >> >> //Mayank >> >> From: Vivek Agarwal B <vivek.b.agarwal@ericsson.com> >> Sent: 08 September 2026 09:16 AM >> To: users@kafka.apache.org >> Cc: Ashish Verma V <ashish.v.verma@ericsson.com>; Mayank Maheshwari M >> <mayank.m.maheshwari@ericsson.com> >> Subject: Kafka 4.4.0 formal release date >> >> Hi, >> >> As per Release Plan 4.4.0 - Apache Kafka - Apache Software Foundation<https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/spaces/KAFKA/pages/429064575/Release+Plan+4.4.0>, the formal release for Kafka 4.4.0 is planned for 9th Sep. >> Could you please confirm that the release date remains unchanged and that there are no updates to the current schedule? >> >> Regards >> Vivek >