Running multiple versions of Connector plugins (KIP-891)

[scholzj]

We should investigate what impact does the KIP-891 have on Strimzi. Its expected introduction seems to be currently in Kafka 4.0.0. The one area that comes to my mind with possible impact is the KafkaConnector CRD -> do we expect the version to be specified in .spec.config? Or should we have a dedicated field for it such as .spec.version? Ideally, we should clarify this before releasing Kafka 4.0.0 support as changing it later might cause backwards compatibility issues.

[im-konge]

Triaged on 9.1.2025: @mimaison mentioned that the KIP is now targeting Kafka 4.1.0. @katheris is for the .spec.version option. Let's give others more time to go through the KIP - we will go through it on the next community call.