{"id":220662,"date":"2026-03-06T12:33:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/06\/long-term-support-for-linux-releases-gets-a-new-lease-on-life\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T12:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:55:08","slug":"long-term-support-for-linux-releases-gets-a-new-lease-on-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/06\/long-term-support-for-linux-releases-gets-a-new-lease-on-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-term support for Linux releases gets a new lease on life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long-term support for Linux releases gets a new lease on life<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/thenewstack.io\/long-term-support-for-linux-releases-gets-a-new-lease-on-life\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-06 12:33:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: thenewstack.io<\/a><\/p>\n

If you want to keep your Linux instances safe and secure, your best course is to use Long Term Support (LTS) Linux kernels. They\u2019re the ones that get all the bug fixes. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, once upon a time, the LTS kernels were supported for six years. Then, in 2023, the <\/span>Linux kernel maintainers decided to cut LTS support to two years<\/span>. Why? Because maintainers were burning out. That\u2019s still a problem, but based on user feedback, Linux stable maintainer Greg <\/span>Kroah-Hartman has decided to extend the existing LTS kernels\u2019 supported life<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), <\/span>Kroah-Hartman<\/span> writes that, \u201cbased on lots of discussions with different companies and groups and the other stable kernel maintainer [<\/span>Sasha Levin<\/span>],\u201d they decided to extend support for several key releases into 2027 and 2028, and partially rolling back an earlier move to sharply limit LTS.<\/span><\/p>\n

A longer lease on life for more recent kernels<\/h2>\n

Specifically, the new dates mean concrete, if modest, extensions for the main active LTS lines. <\/span>According to the revised schedule, Linux 6.6 will now receive fixes through the end of 2027, while 6.12 and 6.18 are slated to be maintained until the end of 2028. That translates into roughly a four\u2011year window for 6.6 and 6.12, and at least three years for 6.18, significantly more than the two years that had become the new default for LTS trees in recent planning.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Linux kernel long-term release schedule (credit: kernel.org).<\/p>\n

No changes for 5.xx branches<\/h2>\n

However, the older 5.10 and 5.15 branches keep their existing December 2026 end\u2011of\u2011life dates, putting them on a clear path to retirement later this year. Kernel.org\u2019s projections still list 6.1 as supported through December 2027, but the focus of this revision is on the newer 6.6, 6.12, and 6.18 trees that many distributions and vendors are either adopting now or lining up for their next cycles.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new schedule does not restore the old six\u2011year promise, but it does push back against the strict…<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long-term support for Linux releases gets a new lease on life https:\/\/thenewstack.io\/long-term-support-for-linux-releases-gets-a-new-lease-on-life\/ Publish Date: 2026-03-06…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":220663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.thenewstack.io\/media\/2026\/03\/4a4c16fa-erone-stuff-csk7sqyfr-8-unsplash-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[71],"class_list":["post-220662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-linux","tag-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220662"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220664,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220662\/revisions\/220664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}