blog: announce shortening of Node.js 16 lifecycle

Refs: nodejs/TSC#1222

locale/en/blog/announcements/nodejs16-eol.md

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+---
+date: 2022-06-08T16:00:00Z
+category: Announcements
+title: Bringing forward the End-of-Life Date for Node.js 16
+slug: nodejs16-eol
+layout: blog-post.hbs
+author: Richard Lau
+---
+
+# Bringing forward the End-of-Life Date for Node.js 16
+
+**tl;dr:** we're planning to bring forward the End-of-Life date of Node.js 16 by seven months to coincide with the end of support of OpenSSL 1.1.1.
+
+When we put together Node.js 16 the hope was that we would be able to include OpenSSL 3. Unfortunately the timing of the releases did not allow that to be possible, and we released Node.js 16 with OpenSSL 1.1.1. OpenSSL 1.1.1 is [scheduled to be supported up until 2023-09-11](https://www.openssl.org/policies/releasestrat.html), which is seven months before the planned End-of-Life date of Node.js 16 (April 2024).
+
+The project has evaluated the following options:
+1. Do nothing. Node.js 16 will be at risk for any vulnerabilities in OpenSSL 1.1.1 for the last seven months of its lifetime.
+2. End support for Node.js 16 early in September 2023 to coincide with EOL of OpenSSL 1.1.1. We have precedent for doing this when we ended support for [Node.js 8 four months early](https://github.com/nodejs/Release/issues/186) to coincide with the EOL of OpenSSL 1.0.2.
+3. Attempt a switch to OpenSSL 3. Based on issues reported against Node.js 17 and 18 (which are on OpenSSL 3) and adjustements that needed to be made to our own test suite, this is considered reisky and will likely cause compatibility issues for some applications. 
+4. Attempt to replace OpenSSL 1.1.1 with the version of [OpenSSL 1.1.1 from CentOS Stream 8](https://git.centos.org/rpms/openssl/tree/c8s). CentOS Stream 8 is upstream Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8) and its openssl package would be supported for the duration of RHEL 8 ([until 31 May 2024](https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/)). Unfortunately the changes made to OpenSSL for CentOS Stream 8 result in differences (e.g. [removal of several algorithms](https://git.centos.org/rpms/openssl/blob/c8s/f/SOURCES/hobble-openssl)) which would cause compatibility issues for some applications.
+
+After consideration we have decided that the least risky option is to avoid the potential breaking change of an in-release OpenSSL switch and bring forward the End-of-Life date of Node.js 16 to be on the same day as the end of support of OpenSSL 1.1.1, 11 September 2023.