A Linux kernel 6.12 has been assigned the status of a long-term support branch. Updates for the 6.12 branch will be released at least until December 2026, and it's possible that, similar to previous LTS branches, the support duration will be extended to six years. For regular kernel releases, updates are only made until the next stable branch is released (for example, updates for the 6.11 branch were released until 6.12 was launched).
At the same time, it was announced that the maintenance cycle for the Linux kernel branch 4.19 has been completed, with the final release 4.19.325 published (no further updates will be released in the 4.19.x series). The 4.19 branch was formed in October 2018, was supported for 6 years, and was used in Debian 10 and Android 10. It is recommended to migrate products shipped with kernel 4.19 to more up-to-date LTS releases or use builds from the Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP) project.
Long-term branches are still being supported:
- 6.6 — until December 2026 (used in Ubuntu 24.04 and OpenWRT 24.10-rc1).
- 6.1 — 2026 decemberéig + SLTS keretén belüli támogatás (Debian 12-ben használva).
- 5.15 — until October 2026 (used in Ubuntu 22.04, Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 7, and OpenWRT 23.05).
- 5.10 — 2026 decemberéig + SLTS keretén belüli támogatás (Debian 11, Android 12 és OpenWRT 22 alatt használva).
- 5.4 — until December 2025 (used in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and in Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 6).
A Linux Foundation által 4.4, 4.19, 5.10 és 6.1-es magok alapján különböző SLTS (Super Long Term Support) ágakat biztosítanak, amelyek külön támogatást kapnak, és 10-20 évig fenntartják őket. Az SLTS ágak támogatása a Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP) projekt keretében történik, amelyben olyan cégek vesznek részt, mint a Toshiba, Siemens, Renesas, Bosch, Hitachi és MOXA, valamint az LTS ágak karbantartói, a Debian fejlesztői és a KernelCI projekt létrehozói. Az SLTS magok a polgári infrastruktúra technikai rendszereiben és fontos ipari rendszerekben való alkalmazásra irányulnak.
Forrás: opennet.ru
