Kernel developers have extended the support deadlines for three supported LTS branches of the Linux kernel. The support for branch 6.18 has been extended from 2 to 3 years, 6.12 from 2 to 4 years, and 6.6 from 3 to 4 years. The support for branches 6.1, 5.15, and 5.10 remains unchanged. For regular kernel releases, updates are provided only until the next stable branch is released (for example, updates for branch 6.19 will be released until 7.0 is available). For long-term support branches, an initial two-year support period is announced, but this period is typically extended several times.
Long-term branch support is provided for:
- 6.18 – until December 2027 2028.
- 6.12 – until December 2026 2028. (used in Debian 13, SUSE 16, Android 16, Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 8, RHEL10, OpenWRT 25.12).
- 6.6 – until December 2026 2027. (used in OpenWRT 24.10).
- 6.1 — until December 2027 (used in Debian 12).
- 5.15 — until October 2026 (used in Ubuntu 22.04, Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 7 and OpenWRT 23.05).
- 5.10 — until December 2026 (used in Debian 11, Android 12, and OpenWRT 22).
Separately, the Linux Foundation provides SLTS (Super Long Term Support) branches based on kernels 4.4, 4.19, 5.10, 6.1, and 6.12, which are maintained separately and supported for 10-20 years. SLTS branch support is carried out under the Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP) project, involving companies like Toshiba, Siemens, Renesas, Bosch, Hitachi, and MOXA, as well as LTS branch maintainers of the main kernel, Debian developers, and the KernelCI project creators. SLTS kernels are aimed at use in technical civil infrastructure systems and critical industrial systems.
Source: opennet.ru
