Laura Scott posted an excellent article at Pingv that makes the case which OpenConcept hopes every Drupal 6 user will immediately take to heart; it's time to be actively working on your website upgrade.
 
We excerpt and link Laura's article as she spells it out as well as anyone could, but we will underscore a couple of the main points:

With the impending release of Drupal 8 people still running Drupal 6 have only three options, one of which isn't actually an option at all, and another isn't really an option for most users either. The three options are:

1. Examine Drupal 8, start mapping out your upgrade strategy NOW;
2. Upgrade to Drupal 7 now;
3. Wait until Drupal 8.0 is out to make a decision.

Laura concludes Option 3 by stating "And you can always embrace option 1 or 2 next month or next quarter." ie if you do choose option 3, you should choose 1 or 2 instead.

As for option 1, Laura discusses why this is really only an option for a small percentage of users, and even they need to think deeply about what they get vs what they risk. Read her article carefully if you are one of the people considering either option 1 or 3.

For the overwhelming majority of users the only really practical option is number 2, upgrade to Drupal 7. It is the most secure and problem free choice. Unless there are very compelling reasons to do otherwise it is the default.

Regardless, her main point applies, no matter which path you choose to take, start actively planning your upgrade now! And here is Laura Scott's explanation of why:

Still running Drupal 6? Start planning your upgrade now!

Drupal 8 is coming. The countdown is underway. It could be here by October. If past experiences with recent major Drupal releases is any indication, October may be on the early side; major Drupal versions are released only when ready, with 0 known critical

bugs, and that could take longer than 7 months. But when it happens, one thing is for sure:

Community support for Drupal 6 will disappear!

As a Drupal user, it’s very likely that you already know that the strength of Drupal comes from its community. So losing that community support is a big deal.

The policy is this: The Drupal community supports the current release and the previous release. Today, Drupal 7 is the current release and Drupal 6 is the previous release. Both versions get community support for and bug fixes and those critical security updates. (The current release always gets the most attention; the previous release usually gets bug fixes only if they’re really major or critical.)

Continue reading: Still running Drupal 6? Start planning your upgrade now!

Excerpt reposted from Pingv. Hat tip to The Weekly Drop