A kernel developers extended the support periods for three maintained LTS branches of the Linux kernel. Support for the 6.18 branch has been extended from 2 to 3 years, 6.12 from 2 to 4 years, and 6.6 from 3 to 4 years. Support for the 6.1, 5.15, and 5.10 branches remains unchanged. For regular kernel releases, updates are provided only until the next stable branch is released (for example, updates for the 6.19 branch will be released until 7.0 is out). For long-term support branches, an initial two-year support period is announced, but this period is usually extended several times.
Support for long-term branches is provided:
- 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 based on kernels 4.4, 4.19, 5.10, 6.1, and 6.12, the Linux Foundation provides SLTS (Super Long Term Support) branches that are supported separately and can last from 10 to 20 years. The support for SLTS branches is conducted within the Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP) project, which includes companies such as Toshiba, Siemens, Renesas, Bosch, Hitachi, and MOXA, as well as maintainers of the main kernel's LTS branches, Debian developers, and the creators of the KernelCI project. SLTS kernels are focused on application in technical systems of civil infrastructure and in critical industrial systems.
Forrás: opennet.ru
